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SFR 78: HOW To Build Fast... Oct 06, 2017

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After 301 funnels, I’m just barely noticing why I’ve been building so fast...

What's going on everyone, this is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels and now here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Steve Larsen: All right guys, I apologize first off that I've been a little bit less consistent with this podcast the last little bit here. It's been so busy. It's been so busy. We've been going and building a lot. Russel's been in inner circles. There's a lot of stuff been going on in the sales funnel world in general and it's so fun living in the click funnels area because I feel like I'm in the nucleus of where marketing principles and status quo is created.

It's fun, it's cool to sit back and go, "Oh my gosh, I can see how this is going to become a thing in the whole industry," and really fun to get to do that. Anyway, it's been busy, it's been fast. The last four days alone I have built four membership sites and these are not like little tiny membership sites. Anyone would be happy to just have one of them. There's been 500 videos put inside of them. Redesigning them, each one at a time. It's been fast, fast paced and I've really, really enjoyed it.

There was something interesting thought that happened as I was building these membership sites and I was putting them all together, and honestly if you don't have a membership site I think you should go create one. Even if you're like, "Hey, Steven, I don't know what the heck to put inside of it." I would go create a membership site for the sole reason of you being able to put cool content in there. When people are like, "Hey," whatever your expertise is. Whatever it is that you do out there.

You're like, "Hey, how do I do X, Y, and Z?" If you go make videos on that and put it in there, I mean, that becomes a really cool asset, or at least cool bonus, or something.

Anyway, I really think that click funnel's on massive power with membership sites which we've been building. Our 25,000 dollar packages. Guess what, membership sites have been click funnels. 15,000 dollars, guess what? Built inside click funnels. Several 10,000 dollar packages. All the membership sites have been in the click funnels. I've had a lot people come back and say, "There's no way this was built with click funnels."

I promise you it is. I'm not a coder and that's, I billed it out. Anyway, that was a bit of a rant there but I notice something. I notice something as I was building it. As I was, I mean, I was probably on video number 400. I was placing in, I was building, I was going fast pace. There was resource links. PDF downloads, checklists all over the place.

All this stuff that you'd want to have when going through a course to help someone actually understand and learn.

What was interesting is I got about half way through the first one and I realized that I was not ... It's freaking but you know how like you can get in a car and you're driving somewhere and then all of a sudden you realize you're there and you don't realize you got there. Your brain's on autopilot. You know what I mean, kind of feeling? I'm not saying I don't pay attention when I drive, but I'm saying your brain can be in other places and it's kind of second nature for you to drive the route you are and you're not really noticing that tree on the side of the road.

That happens to me sometimes when I build but not usually...

Usually, that happens to me when I do things where it's not so creatively intense, you know where little details matter but I found myself doing that. I realized like, "Holy crap," like dozens and dozens of videos and lesson sections had gone by and I didn't even notice it. I was like, "How interesting. I wonder why that is with this." A lot of it was a lot of copy paste, building stuff. There was some redundancy in the task I was doing which made sense.

I don't actually think that, that's the reason why they got done so fast. Why I got them done so quickly. There's four massive sites in three and a half days. I mean, those weren't the only things I did either. I mean, these huge, huge, huge, huge sites and like I thought it was going to take me way longer than that. Like a week or two, or three weeks to build out these just massive things.

I know a lot of you guys go through this. You're like, "Okay, I've got these huge sites to build. There are these funnels or whatever it is." You're probably like me.

Maybe you're not a coder or programmer so it might feel a little bit more intense for you to get those things done right.

Anyway, I realized why I was able to do it. It's because there was a pattern that I started following. I had two monitors up and even in the way I was building there was this system that I was creating without realizing that I was creating it. I was putting this whole system together. I'd look over on the left, see what I was modeling, grab the URL in the center. Copy and paste in the text. Copy, paste, repeat. Open up. Drop inside the link.

I can still see the process in my head because I've been doing it for the last three and a half days. Just pumping out these huge sites. These huge membership funnels and sites. I was like, "How interesting is it that it's that way. That I was able to do that. I mean, I've built over 300 funnels in the last year and a half working at click funnels and I usually don't, I can't get into that.

I usually have to think consciously about every single decision that needs to be made and it almost freaked me out. I'm not going to lie.

It almost kind of scared me a little bit because I was like, "Is there a detail I'm missing?" I actually had to backtrack a little bit but I realized that I was creating these processes and systems to handle things that I was doing over and over and over again. I suddenly had all these experiences I've had in my past just kind of start flooding back to me. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's like this. That's like this." There was a company that I was working for when I was in college.

It was around the time I was trying to prove to the industry that I was worth my salt as a funnel builder. That I honestly had so much more to learn. I obviously still do but I was trying to prove that like, "Hey, I'm a runner. I'm willing to work. I've got the base skills down. Somebody hire me.

" I was trying to say like, "Somebody get to me. Somebody hire me." I was running around, I was shotgun emailing all these people and I ended up working for this company.

I had the most interesting experience when I was working there. I was excited. I was trying to prove myself. I wasn't charging them anything, I just wanted to show that I knew what I was doing in these certain areas.

I was like, "Look, I know you have no idea what a funnel is. Let me just go ahead and build it and if it makes money let's talk about me making some kind of cash, or whatever. Only i...

SFR 77: Watch Me Build My Next Funnels LIVE... Sep 26, 2017

Show notes

Russell Brunson and Gary V have both said it's better to "Document and Sell", rather than simply just "Create and Sell"... SO! Watch me build my next personal webinar funnel LIVE...

What's up everyone? This is Steve Larsen. You're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now here's your host, Steve Larsen.

All right, all right. Hey, it's gonna be a fast episode. It's more of an announcement styled episode. Hey, a few episodes ago I finished a six part series where I went through each of the industry's, basically six different categories of businesses, that are using ClickFunnels.

And honestly, pretty much every business that I know of fits in them. And it was fun because I went through each one of those categories, and went and I found a rock star that's killing it in each one of those areas.

Now my whole ... I believe in a level of business karma. And I know that there are people out there who may not be in love with sales funnels the way I am, and that's totally fine.

It's my thing. And you have a thing. I'm not asking you to take on my thing. All right? It's your peak. You stay at your peak. You be the best in the world. Stay on that peak.

It's the reason I won't go learn Facebook ads. One day, Facebook won't be the hot shot stuff. You know what I mean? One day, there will be a new traffic source that's massive. Now it may not happen for a really long time. I don't know.

But guess what I know is always going to be there? Funnels. Because it has to do with sales. And whether or not you meant to build one, you have a funnel. All right? Online or offline, you always have a funnel. Right? And so I decided to stay on this peak.

Well so, I got these six different categories, and I've been thinking to myself how cool would it be if I went and I live built a funnel, that works really well in each of those six different categories? And so what I thought was now I don't know how long this will take. I don't know the timeline. If it's gonna be really, it's gonna be all over the place.

But I'm going to ... Anyway, I believe that if I just keep pumping value into the marketplace, value always comes back. And every time I've ever done that, it's always true. And so I thought how cool would it be ... What if I was to build a Webinar Funnel live for everyone? You know?

And I probably wouldn't give the funnel away for free because every time I build them, they take a solid ten hours. You know? I'm not just gonna give that for free. I'd charge for it. But it wouldn't be a lot. It'd just be a little bit.

But how cool would it be if I went and I built an application style funnel the way that I know they work? How cool would it be if I went and I built an E-commerce funnel the way that I know that they work?

MLM the way I know that they work? You know what I mean? Each one of the industries, go through it. Retail. Back and forth, and back and forth, and I actually built live. And you guys could come join me and watch, and ask questions, and stuff. That's freakin' awesome. That would be a lot of fun.

Anyway. So that's what I'm thinking. And I'm thinking it'd be a lot of fun. And so I guess the, I don't know if you want this kind of lesson or whatever with this. If you can include people in the act of your own craft. Whatever your specialty is, if you can include people in that, you're really ...

You guys know it was in the movie, "Hitch." Right? In the movie, "Hitch," there's that scene where Will Smith goes and he makes dinner with the chef. You know what I mean? With his date and his date's boss. Right?

And he goes, and he's there, and he's cooking the food with him. The chef is including them in the process of making the food. That's why they're there for the process.

The more you can do that, and unveil, and show behind the curtains of what it is that you actually do, and peel back the curtain, and show like hey, this is how I do what I do. People fall in love with you like that.

And so I guess that's me just being vulnerable just telling you that's my goal is to help you see exactly what I do, and why I do it. And so what I'm thinking is I ... Anyway, I think the way I'm gonna do this ... I had this idea just a few days ago. And I think I'm gonna do it.

Where I think we'll have it where if you go to salesfunnelbroker.com/live, salesfunnelbroker.com/live. I used to have it all building, or I'd build live on a different platform, but I kinda want to keep it all in the Sales Funnel Broker platform, that I've already got there.

By the way, there's the equivalent of thousands, and thousands, and thousands, and thousands of opt-ins. There's so many people, that have downloaded free funnels off of that site, which is awesome.

But that's the reason I built is just to give tons of value away. But I kinda need to revamp it. I built that over a year ago now, and I need to get that a little bit more. I need to update it. So I thought how cool would it be if I actually included you in the update.

And if I go rebuild kind of the bank of funnels that's there as well as all of the stuff that is given. So I'm gonna start with a Webinar Funnel. And I'm gonna do it I think on September 30th, this Saturday. And I'll get up, and so right now by the time you hear this episode, this will be up. Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/live.

And what I want you to do is you can opt in. And what you're opting in for is basically I'm gonna make that page basically a webinar registration page. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna be able to register for a live funnel build with me, and with whoever else wants to watch.

And you can follow through, and do the same thing that I'm doing. Now I'm not there to train each aspect of ClickFunnels, or to give massive orientation. So I'm gonna go my normal speed. And I'll play some music. And I'll explain what I'm doing as I'm doing it. And it'll be a lot of fun. Like they're just funnels I want to build anyway.

I love what I do. But just know that I'm doing it for a specific purpose, for specific reasons. And I thought hey, how cool would it be if I just, I don't know, if you want to join.

So, and then what I thought would be kinda cool was if I posted the replays underneath. And you can get the full replay when, and the funnel that I built. You know? And I'll charge. But it's not gonna be a ton.

But these will be prebuilt funnels based on how I know that it works. So I've built almost 300 sales funnels now for ClickFunnels in the last year and a half. I built a crap ton of funnels. I literally have dreamt in the Editor, the ClickFunnels Editor. You know what I mean?

Anyway. So this is kinda a fast episode, but I thought I'd give that announcement, that this could be kinda neat. That if you want go to ... And I'll always, I'll have you opt in so for the purpose of me being able to go and announce when the...

SFR 76: WHY Russell Brunson Can Launch A "Viral Video" Sep 22, 2017

Show notes

Too many times I see people learning to solve a problem that is UNRELATED to where they actually are...

Woohoo. What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen. You're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels, and now he's your host Steve Larsen.

Hey, guys. I hope you're doing great. It is a very rainy day outside right now. It's been freezing. Holy crap. Hey, we just barely had our viral video launched at ClickFunnels which has been a ton of fun. I really, really enjoyed that. As marketers, you always try to make events out of everything, right? You sit back and you're like, "Hey, we got this cool video coming out. How can we make an event out of that? Well, we could just put it on YouTube and publish it. That's not very exciting. What if we had this cool event where we had people show up and we all have a big launch party together? Cool. You know what? What if we had Gary V. show up?

Oh, my gosh. Gary Vaynerchuk. Let's have him show up and he'll talk to us a little bit more about social media and virality. Cool. Awesome. Let's do that. You know what would be awesome? What if we had the actual people, Harmon Brothers, who made the launch, the actual video itself? Let's have them come teach more about the formula they used to make videos go viral? Cool. Awesome."

Guys, ideas evolve like this over and over and over again...

It's so fun. They're so fluid and they're all over the place. There's no idea that's ... Well, no. There's definitely such a thing as a stupid idea. But, then you continue to evolve and grow and, oh, my gosh, what if we had the top YouTubers out there since they got huge reach on video and obviously it's a video? What if we had them? Oh, my gosh. Let's have them come to the party and we'll literally teach them how to share our video with their audience of millions of millions of millions and go like, "Well, it's Idaho. It's Boise."

I don't know. We're like, "Well, we got to have some cool thing. What can we do? How can we make them look like rock stars for coming to Boise, Idaho?"

Dave Woodward, he's the man, was like, "Hey. Oh, my gosh. What if we broke a world record? We're there. Let's rent out the Boise state stadium. We'll hold an event in the top box, suite area." I don't know what to call that area. "Then we'll go down on the football field afterwards and we'll play bubble soccer." Then he's like, "Oh, my gosh. I'll be right back." He came back in. It was so cool. Dave is amazing. I've watched him work his magic. He's like, "Oh, my gosh. What if we broke a world record on the stadium?" He's like, "I'll be right back."

That's one of the most exciting days I ever had ever. He ran back in and he goes, "I just talked to Guinness Book of World Records. They can totally come out. We just got the stadium. We just got approval for this." We're like, "Crap. We can actually pull this off." Dave is the man. Then, all of a sudden, he's like, "How are we going to get all these people there?" Then the game became how do we get all the these massive, massive influencers to come out?

Guys, I remember when I was riding my bike home one day and I've mentioned this story before. I was riding a bike home one day. This was years ago and I had almost no money. We're living on loans and I was trying to make this whole thing work. What happened is I was riding home and I was like, "Oh, my gosh. I can't. Why is this not working? How come I'm not making money?" I have the stark slap in the face realization. It's because you're not even asking anybody for their credit card anywhere. There's no place for people to give you money.

Crap. I was like, "Dang it. That's totally the reason why."

A lot of people who listen to this show are very successful and a lot of people who listen to the show have yet to launch something but you're learning this problem set of information. You're learning this information to solve a problem set that you're not on yet. Russell can go out and he can spend lots of money or he can spend lots of time getting people out to promote his thing because he has a thing. Does that make sense?

That was my big realization when I was riding home that day. I was like, "Oh, my gosh. I don't even have a thing."

I'm learning...

Yeah, I know exactly what I would do to 2X this company. Crap. I don't have one myself yet. You know what I mean? That was my realization years ago when I was riding back home. It was freezing. We didn't have money for a second car even. You understand what I'm saying? I didn't have a thing. There was no business for me to be applying to these marketing principles to.

It's fun to watch when you do have a thing. Right now, obviously, I have several things. I keep it on the low count as far as how many things I have going up. Russell, obviously, he's got quite the amazing thing, ClickFunnels, right? A total market disruptor. Amazing software.

Once you have your actual core business created, it's super fun because the problem set changes. You're able to turn around and you're able to say, "Okay. Now that I have a business, now that I actually have a product, what are all these fun marketing games I can apply things to to actually become successful with this?" Does that make sense?

We're at the viral video launch and it goes amazing. We show up there and I got asked to stand at the front and greet people and help them get their tags and all that kind of stuff. I had a ton of fun doing it. We had about 400 people show up. They're showing up and they're showing up. It was so fun, so fun. These massive influencers are there. I got to meet and talk with and chat with Billy Gene, Billy Gene Is Marketing, JP Sears and a ton of people who are a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the entire experience.

This tells you how much I know politics which is a little bit embarrassing. Maybe I should not even start saying this. But, the guy running for governor showed up. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of big people there and we gave them a reason to show up, bubble soccer, viral video launch. We needed to answer the question: how can we improve their status by showing up? Does that make sense?

It's not in a negative light like, oh, look at the status and look at how high and mighty you are. That's not at all what I'm talking about.

But when you're doing these Dream 100 strategies, when you actually finally have a thing, when you have a business, when you have an idea, when you got cash flow, the name of the game, especially when you're doing JV stuff whether it's for your customers or for it's people you're doing joint venture things with, the question near there to answer is how do I make those guys look like rock stars?

How do I make them look like rock stars? How do I increase their status through my brand? When you can answer that q...

SFR 75: Hurry UP - Money Loves Speed! Sep 20, 2017

Show notes

Click above to listen in iTunes...

The two most common lies I see people struggle with are also what slows them down...

Hey, do you guys remember that time I was hooked up to a lie detector machine in front of an FBI agent?

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

I was with the army at basic training, it was 10 weeks longs, we were doing all the things you see in Hollywood. We were running around, we were shooting, we were throwing grenades, we were shooting machine guns, we were really up early, up really late, hardly any sleep, hardly any food. You know what I mean?

The whole works...

I was one of the only guys who was there over the age of 20. I was definitely one of the only guys there who was married and I was definitely, definitely one of the only guys of the entire 200 in my company who actually had kids, also. I went into the army at an age that most people do not go into at. I'm about to get out, which is awesome.

At the end of the training, my company they showed up and they said, "Hey, we need some people to go over to this polygraph machine and you're going to help FBI, NSA, and CIA agents with their polygraph skills." If you don't know what that is, that's like the lie detector machine, right? They like look in your pupils and stuff like that.

Some of that's true, some of that isn't. They're like, "Hey, Larsen, we know that you have a pretty clean record. You need to go do that with them." I was like, "Okay. Dang, all right."

They send me over to this building, which happens to be the national polygraph testing center. We're marching over there, it's early morning, the sun's not even up yet and you're marching over there. Everyone's holding their gun and stuff and we're walking over.

We get inside there and we sit down in this room and it was kind of dramatic. This lady walks in and she goes, "Hey, by the way, just want you to know this is an actual polygraph.

If we find anything inside your actual record, or anything comes up, or we uncover anything we will kick you out of the army and there's a chance you could go to jail." We were like, "What? Holy crap." It's funny because some people started opting out of it. They were like, "Oh, I feel sick. There's no way I could do this." I was like, "Sweet, this is cool."

They were like, "By the way, also, if it doesn't go well or if we feel like you're lying we're going to take you to this room and we're going to interrogate you." I was like, "No way. I have got to get interrogated." They're like, "Sir, you're not supposed to want to get interrogated." I was like, "Come on. That was would be so fun." I was like, "Is there a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling and you guys are going to hit it, and yell in my face, and fire a gun somewhere? I don't know, interrogate me!"

They're like, "You're not supposed to want that."

Anyway, so they take me over to this room. We literally waited all day. They take me over to this room and we sit down in this chair. It's just me. The room is totally quiet. There's just a desk, this random lady sitting there I think as an agent from some agency. I don't know. It could have been Jason Bourne, I don't know. No, but we were sitting there and it was just this lady and I in this closed room. It was quiet.

I just remember how quiet it was. It was extremely, extremely quiet. The kind of quiet where you can hear your own breathing, where you can ... It's like your thoughts are almost loud. You know what I mean? It's that kind of room. Super, super, super quiet. Can't hear anything out, can't hear barely anything in because the agent wasn't saying anything.

I was sitting there and they start hooking me up to this machine. It was like I was in a dentist chair almost. I sat back and I laid back in this thing. They were wrapping straps around my chest, and around my arms, and at my fingertips. Polygraphs were a lot easier to beat way back in the day. They're pretty good now, though.

What's funny about lying, this is what they taught us, is that any time you tell or hear a lie, anytime you especially tell a lie, you have a physiological response to that lie. The same response happens as if a disease entered your body. That's why they're able to tell and see if you lied because whether or not you want to there's this reaction inside your body that is harmful whenever you lie. I was like, "Whoa, that's really cool.

I've got to remember that."

Obviously, I did...

What they're doing is they're looking for all these different spikes in your body; blood pressure, pupil dilating thing, all these different things. The pupil dilating this is, I guess, an easy way to not see it so they don't do that as much. Anyway, it was fascinating though.

I'm hooked up to this machine and they start asking these questions just to see where my normal response is. "Is your name Steven Larsen?" "Yes." "Are you a man?" "Yes." They ask all these super false things, "Are we in Mexico?" "No."

You know what I mean?

Really, really it's exactly like you hear in the movies. Pretty soon ... What we were instructed to do was at some point, because this was a training exercise for the agent, we had to lie. They told us we had to lie sometime in there. They were like, "Don't tell us where. Don't tell us when. Don't tell us the question that you're going to lie about. Nothing. You tell the truth the whole way through because it's a real polygraph and at some point in there you need to lie." We were like, "Crap, okay. Okay, sounds good."

I had this place. I was like, "I'm going to lie here. Here is where I'm going to lie." Mentally, you know it's coming up. The polygraph is going great. That spot started coming up and I was trying to keep myself cool knowing that I'm about to lie to an actual ... I think she either CIA or FBI ... An actual agent. I was like, "Crap, here it comes and I've got to be good at this."

The lie comes up and it was something ridiculous like, "Are you affiliated with a terrorist organization?" Or, "Do you supply and create mass illegal drugs?" Or some ridiculous thing and I lied on it. The agent leans in, kind of like this slow breath, leans back out a little bit, squints, and then she asks the same question again, and I lied.

She goes ... Then, she just moves on right next to the next question. I was like, "Oh my gosh, I just beat a polygraph machine. I just beat a polygraph machine. That's ridiculous."

She believed it. What was funny was that she almost caught me. She almost got me. I'm a little sad that she didn't because it meant that I could go get interrogated and I was good enough that they never picked it up. I was like, "Crap, I want to go to the interrogation room. Come on, make it hard, coach."

That happened. We walk out and I started thinking through because I went back to the rest of the people they brought with us. There was like 50 of us, 40 or 50 of us, something like that. There was only like one other person, two other people who actually beat it. Everybody else was caught. I was thinking like, "How inte...

SFR 74: Publish! ...and get haters Sep 12, 2017

Show notes

WHEN To Interview, AND When NOT To...

Oh, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

You guys, it has been seriously six weeks since I had personally done a podcast and I'm very excited for this episode actually. I hope you've been enjoying the last six episode.

What I decided to do is that, you know, when we found out that oh my gosh, look, there's six different categories really that most businesses fit in.

Almost all of them actually...

I was like, "Why don't I go find someone who's killing it with internet sales funnels? Let me go find that person. Let me go interview them and go dive deep with them." Anyway, I hope that you've enjoyed it. If you've not had a chance to listen to each of them I would.

What was coolest to think through especially as the interviewer, watch all of these similarities that everyone one of them was talking about. A lot of it had to do with just standard marketing principles, but then also the very specific ways of like, "Hey, this works only in this industry," or, "This works only in this industry."

But what's funny, and the more I've talked with Russell and the more that I've learned from him, he's taught me in many aspects that a lot of the times some of the reasons why he goes and he crushes it so hard routinely, over and over and over and over again is because he will take tactics and use them cross-industry.

There's a great book ... Oh my gosh, I can't remember the name of it. It's the story of the dude that was selling snake oil almost literally and he made tons of money and people found ... Ah, man, I can't remember the name of it.

Crap, I should have found it before I started this episode, but basically what he's taught me is that hey look, one of the best ... And actually teaches that in the book too.

Is that one of the best places to find the best working marketing tactics out there is actually inside of the medical industry, right? They've got weight loss, they've got different dieting, they've got liposuction, they've got procedures, they've got high ticket things, low ticket things, supplements, continuity. You know what I mean? They've got all this stuff just over and over and over again.

There is so much money spent on having the best sales copy and the best advertorials, the best creatives, the best ...

You know, so if you think about different ways to do funnel hacking it's not always just yes, go find somebody inside your industry who's killing it.

Really red ocean. Funnel hack them and then take one step further, add your own piece into it and now you have a new niche, right?

That's how you have a new opportunity. Well, one of the other ways you can protect the niche and protect your business is to start studying cross-industry tactics. That's one of the major reasons why I'm telling you.

Even if it's one that you're like, "Hey, I did not think that at all I would get anything from that interview Steven did before," but my guess is that you will and that you'll learn something. Go, "Oh my gosh, if I was to take that from this industry and place it over here I wonder if it would work really well?"

Now you'd be prepared it might flop, but it's also highly likely that you're gonna ...

It's super fascinating to start thinking of it that way. Anyway, so go out and start trying to find different cross-industry tactics that you could be throwing in there. Now if you don't have a business yet, focus on the business.

Focus on creating something. Get something out there.

Start selling, start asking for people's credit cards...

Don't get distracted by that when I'm telling you right here. But if you've got something up and you know how it sells, you figured out what you're selling and you figured out how to sell it, now it's time to start going cross-industry.

Or maybe it is start going out and how can you create yourself to be more hard to beat, right? How can you create yourself even stiffer competition or stiffer for others to actually beat? Stronger marketing tactics, right? Make the offer even cooler. There's a whole bunch of different ways.

That's actually part of a presentation I give elsewhere that I should maybe show you here and ways to protect your niche. But anyway, I recently, while I was in the middle of those interviews, I had somebody reach out. And it's always so funny to me the people that react on what I publish. It's hilarious. You always get people who love what you do and it's super fun to hear from them. I love that. It keeps you motivated.

And then there's always people that reach out and you're like, "Did you get some kind of status by telling me how much you hated the last episode of something?" What was the motivation going on inside your head for why you felt you had to actually turn around and say, "Hey, that sucked." Or I don't know, when I knew it didn't. Or frankly I don't care. You know what I mean? If you're out there and you're starting to publish just understand it.

I wanted to just tell you guys why I actually publish. Why I do this. Because a lot of you know I did not want to publish for a long time and I want you to know why you should be.

I've written out several reasons here...

I want you to know why you need to be publishing, because this individual reached out and they were like, "Look ..." They said, "Steven ..." Which I totally disagree with, but I see what they're saying too. They said, "Steven, you're so much better interviewing people and you're terrible by yourself." I was like, "Mmmm, that's a strong opinion. I can see that."

But I want you to know why I interview and I want you to know why I will have ones where I just teach my own thoughts.

I recently was sitting in a room with JLD, right? John Lee Dumas, Entrepreneur On Fire. Great guy. Do not take anything I'm about to say as a jab at him. Understand that it is completely out of a positioning move of what I'm about to say. I listened to him teach on stage and the man is amazing. He's done how many thousand interviews literally. That's his whole model.

He interviews people like crazy, right? Like Letterman. You know, David Letterman. He just interviews. The interview and the interview and the interview and the interview and the interview and the interview. And that's it, and I don't know any of his personal thoughts.

While he was talking I had the very, very distinct thought pop into my head. I was like, "You know what's interesting ...?" Because he started doing Q and A and every single one of the questions that was coming to him all had to do on how he podcasts. None of the questions had anything to do about business or marketing.

It was all about, "Hey, how the heck do you pull off recording that many interviews? Oh my gosh. Hey, how on earth are you able to get it done?" And I'm not taking jabs at him. What...

SFR 73: MLM Funnels! Special Interview with Jon Penkert Sep 05, 2017

Show notes

Ever wonder how the top guys actually make fortunes in MLM? Join us now to hear secrets of the "big guys"...

Steve Larsen:

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Now this is part six of six. This is the last segment of this whole series. We're gonna talk about MLM funnels. MLM funnels, this is gonna be a little bit of a different sub interview than the other five so far, and the reason being is because in the other five, I have always been interviewing an actual funnel builder, right? Somebody who put the funnel together for their business, their industry, whatever it was.

This is a little bit of a different scenario, I have an opportunity to interview an amazing gentleman who has built MLM the traditional way, but without bothering the family members and friends...

You guys know that's my whole thing and so, we're gonna learn how he did that without using heavy tech like I use. Does that make sense? So it's kind of a rare look at this. He's done both seven figures personally, both in his MLM, but also in traditional business. Anyway, he's a very, very rare take on MLM and what it takes to be successful with it.

Then what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna show you guys, or rather talk about and teach, why I have an MLM funnel myself and what it does and what it's done for me, and the whole psychology behind it because it's amazing. I've never seen anybody else do it. There's one other guy who kind of came close, but even then, it actually won't do the full thing that this does. Anyway, I'm excited for this interview.

Even if you're not an MLM, I think you'll enjoy the tactics that he uses and how he manages his own business, 'cause I think if we were all to manage his MLM business the way we manage our personal ones, our actual lives would get mentally quieter.

There wouldn't be so much noise in our head. Anyway, let's get into the interview...

Announcer:

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Steve Larsen:

Alright you guys, I am super excited that you're here listening with me today. We have a very unique opportunity to hear from, honestly, one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. I actually only met him only a month or two ago, but right off the bat I could tell something was different.

I have on the call with me Mr. Jon Penkert, who alone inside of the MLM industry, he's one of the top income earners. He's one of those rare guys that has done both seven figures in regular business, but also seven figures in the network marketing business.

One of the things he's taught me is that most people only recruit two and half, two to three people into their MLM business ever. And to say that he's done, which is true, over $500 million in his own downline is absolutely amazing. Anyway, I'm excited to have Mr. Jon Penkert here with me. How are you doing man?

Jon Penkert:

Hey! Good morning Steve and thanks for having me on the call. It's a privilege to be speaking with you.

Steve Larsen:

I'm really excited that you're here. This is a very unique take. Most of the time when you hear the word MLM, I'm sure you were the exact same, you tend to run the other way.

Most people do anyway, and I know that you've figured out though the way that this whole thing works. But before we jump into that, I actually wanted to ask, how did you get into MLM?

Jon Penkert:

Well, I was an entrepreneur out of college and moved to southern California. I wanted to take advantage of the business opportunities there and leverage my skills and my degree. When I arrived in California, you know it's kind of the mecca for network marketing, I never really heard of MLM.

So, a friend of mine invited me to a meeting and I was very skeptical...

It just seemed too good to be true. I couldn't believe all the money they were making. I was like, "Man, I gotta check this out." And it's funny, you say that people run from MLM. What happened is, I started getting involved in network marketing and then people started running from me.

Steve Larsen:

Exactly!

Jon Penkert:

I learned very quickly that this MLM business, it's rife with problems. You end up losing a lot of your friends in the beginning 'cause you don't understand what's required to be successful, you don't understand that the key ingredients to network marketing that makes successful champions are no different than any other facet of life.

Whether it's business or music or sports, there's a formula to success. Once you figure that out, and you embrace the formula, then guess what?

You begin to have this success that you long for...

Steve Larsen:

Now, did you know what that formula was when you first started?

Jon Penkert:

No. As a matter of fact, I have about 10 years of pain, which means failure. I learned that success is built on the back of failure. I used to tell people, "I'm the biggest loser in network marketing," because I tried everything and did it wrong. So, I got about 10 years of pain before I figured out, "You know what? There's gotta be a smarter way to do this."

Steve Larsen:

That's amazing. So, when you first joined though, what happened? What was all that failure? Most people don't talk about the failure parts, but I think we can all relate to it.

Jon Penkert:

Well, I don't fail small. I failed big. Back in the 80's people in California were making $30,000 a month in network marketing and there was a company called FundAmerica.

You can research it...

It actually is the case that all the case law studies. It changed the industry, because back then, you paid a lot of money for your membership fees. It was high membership fee to get involved in these clubs, these MLM clubs. The federal government shut them down for illegal Ponzi scheme, and so the big boys like Herbalife and Amway, they all went to school on that and they changed how they come to market. So all the case law for network marketing was really centered around that FundAmerica.

You can do the research on the lawsuit. They came out on the other side nine months later innocent and not being convicted of a Ponzi scheme 'cause it wasn't, but it ruined the business opportunity and all the downline had dissipated. All of us that got involved and began to build saw the rug literally pulled out from under us in what we thought was the biggest opportunity of our life and we were all gonna become millionaires.

The truth is, you realize if you don't have experienced leaders that have set a foundation to do it right, you're gonna get taken out and there's a lot of examples of that today but the case law began with that FundAmerica opportunity that I was knee deep in and got the rug pulled out from under me.

Steve Larsen:

So you came in while that was all going on then?

Jon Penkert:

Yeah, actually I had the misfortune of coming in at the end. I got all my guys in and we started running right as they closed the doors.

Steve Larsen:

Oh man! Oh my g...

SFR 72: Coaching Funnels! Special Interview with Akbar Sheikh... Aug 29, 2017

Show notes

Living in a supply closet to multi-millionaire in a few years... Learn the incredible story (and coaching funnel) of the impressive Akbar Sheikh...

Steve Larsen:

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen. You're listening to another fantastic episode of Sales Funnel Radio. This episode, we've got a special guest on here for you, his name is Akbar Sheikh. He's going to be representing the author/speaker/coach/consultant category of funnels.

Now, this is actually the biggest category of ... probably people online actually in general, who are entrepreneurs. So, this represents a lot of you guys. Now, as we start going through this, I want you to know before I introduce the guest, before we start the episode ... Akbar has made many millions, and he is more than qualified to be on this podcast thing and teach us.

What you'll notice though in this interview is, how much he doesn't focus on the funnel. Meaning ... the funnel is important, the funnel is there. You have to have it, there's elements ... every single piece he has thought through action by action, piece by piece of what he has inside of his funnel.

It's very important obviously, and he's going to go through those things with you. But you'll notice as I go through the interview, more importantly, is his mindset.

I'm not going to lie, when I first started going through reading marketing books, and business books, I kind of thought that that was a little bit of a frilly thing like, "Ah, you've got to have a great mindset, mindset, mindset," but it's the way that he approaches it that is so key I think to his success with this. It's fantastic, probably one of the most humbling stories and beginnings I've ever heard in my life.

So anyways, sit back and enjoy the episode, but take key awareness of what it is that he's teaching you to do with your brain, very different look at this. Honestly, probably a more developed theology on what it takes as far as the right mindset than most entrepreneurs out there.

Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoy the episode, and let's get right into it.

Announcer:

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host Steve Larsen.

Steve Larsen:

All right. Hey, today we have a very special guest on ... Frankly, I'm excited that you're all here and I got to hit the actual record button, because I actually want to talk to him probably more than anyone right now. I'm really excited for what he's going to share.

This is going to be the author/speaker/coach/consultant segment.

This is part of the six part series we have going on right now, and there's no one else I can think of who is probably more of an expert, but also extremely hard to find to be honest. He's very very humble, he's a bestselling author as of late, which is awesome, has multiple "Two Comma Club" awards, if not physically in hand and well deserved.

I'm very excited for you guys to all hear ... His name is Akbar Sheik, how are you doing my friend?

Akbar Sheikh:

What's up Steve? Doing great, phenomenal, how about you?

Steve Larsen:

Oh, doing so good, living the dream. Thanks for getting up early and do this.

Akbar Sheikh:

My pleasure.

Steve Larsen:

A crazy schedule, that's for sure. Hey, I first heard your story ... You're part of the "Two Comma Club" coaching program, right?

Akbar Sheikh:

I am a "Two Comma Club" member, yeah.

Steve Larsen:

That's right. So, you're actually a member itself. I see your award all over the place, which is awesome, really exciting. But, I heard your backstory, and how you got to where you are now, and it was frankly extremely humbling. A huge reminder to myself, and I think for everyone else who's going to listen to this. You can do this, it's really not rocket science.

I love the story, and without me kind of botching it up or anything else, do you mind sharing some of that story?

Akbar Sheikh:

Yeah no, I'd love to Steve. It's a wild story actually, and I'll kind of just try give you the highlights. The reality is, as a human being, I ... Okay here's what I believe: I believe that everyone is consisted of several orbs. I believe you have your physical health, your mental health, your spiritual health, and your big "Why?"

These are the four magic orbs I believe that create a human being...

With me, right? A few years ago, all these orbs were pulverized. In other words, I was 60 pounds overweight, I was a fast food junkie, they'd have my name on the parking spots at Burger King, Wendy's, all these places.

Steve Larsen:

I would have no idea, 60 pounds overweight, no way.

Akbar Sheikh:

Yeah, I was 60 pounds overweight. Mentally I was ... Actually, I don't really talk about this too much, but I had crippling anxiety.

Steve Larsen:

Sure.

Akbar Sheikh:

Crippling, debilitating anxiety, which took over my life. I was in a completely toxic relationship, I hated what I was doing with a passion, and I didn't have a big "Why?"

Steve Larsen:

Right.

Akbar Sheikh:

All of this combined, and I wasn't very spiritual, and stuff like that. I didn't pray or meditate. All of this combined broke me as a person. I literally ended up in the hospital half dead. I literally ended up in the hospital half dead from frankly, partying too much. I was just a party animal to be honest with you, and I should have died. But, I truly believe God saves me, okay?

I took advantage, I took advantage of this second chance at life, and I overnight dropped all my bad habits cold turkey, by the way. I lost 60 pounds, and I did it all the clean way. I took my name off the parking stickers at McDonald's, I stopped going to fast food, stopped drinking sodas, I just started eating clean bro. I just started eating organic and cleanly.

If I couldn't spell it, I'm not going to eat it. If it contains more than three ingredients, I'm not going to eat it. Just some light exercise.

Honestly, that's the thing. It's not complicated frankly, but it just ... I'll talk about what that one magic thing that it takes to do these things.

Steve Larsen:

It seems to be the thing that pushes over to the funnel area, and your personal life, and whatever it is, you've done [crosstalk 00:06:25] now.

Akbar Sheikh:

It is, yeah. So, I lost that weight, I got out of that toxic relationship into a healthy one, I started meditating and becoming spiritual. I started praying and stuff. So, I completely ... I just changed, and I was on the road to recovery now. My anxiety was still there, because one orb was still malfunctioning. That was my big "Why?" What am I doing here? What do I do on a day-to-day basis? Why am I here? All that.

I was on the road to recovery now, I had obviously lost everything, and I didn't really have much frankly, because I hated ... You're not going to be very productive if you hate what you do, right? At this point, I migrated West to my birthplace, which is San Francisco.

Steve Larsen:

Okay.

Akbar Sheikh:

No money a...

SFR 71: Retail Funnels! Special Interview with Joe Giglietti... Aug 22, 2017

Show notes

Groceries, Restaurants, Clothes, etc. Joe spills the beans on HOW to drive WALK-INs to Brick and Mortar businesses...

Steve Larsen:

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to another episode of Sales Funnel Radio. This is part four of our six part series, and the highlight of today is going to be all about retail funnels, brick and mortar style. This is an interesting category of funnels that we put together, because it does go and transcend across a lot of different areas.

The person I'm going to be interviewing today, his name is Joe Giglietti. Joe, I respect him like crazy. Personal friend of mine. Really, really enjoy any kind of time I get to spend with him. I always learn from him quite a bit. He has a great story he's going to share with you, and then also he's going to dive through the funnel he uses to get people to show up.

It's not just about leads with the retail world, it's all about walk-ins and getting people to come and actually step into your store, whether it's a restaurant or grocery store or whatever it is.

This is not including the professional services category, that category includes dentists and lawyers and doctors. People who there's some kind of specialty involved with it. We call it the professional services. This is not that, this is retail/brick and mortar.

You might think grocery stores, you might think restaurants, you might think Best Buy, those kinds of places. With that, we're going to dive right into the episode.

I would grab a piece of paper because I literally filled an entire thing of notes again on beautiful concept, amazing things that I know that can transform your business, especially if you're jumping into the retail space. It is a different style funnel than the other funnels, which is why it's its own category. With that, let's jump right into this episode.

Announcer:

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Steve Larsen:

Alright, alright. With me today I've got a very special guest, who is representing the retail/brick and mortar space in this special six part series. This would be part four. What he's going to teach us is how he's been using Facebook ads and funnels to drive his business and help other businesses with their own companies and their successes.

I first met this person, I don't even know, it's probably a year ago now. Immediately fell in love with what he believes and what he does. As we started to get more and more of a relationship, it became very apparent that he and I actually have very similar views on the world, beliefs on it, what we're here to do, providing value.

It was really a cool thing to bond over. Anyways, with that I want to welcome you to the show. This is Mr. Joe Giglietti everyone.

Joe Giglietti:

What's up man, thank you so much. I am super stocked to be here on the show with you. I know there'll be lots of energy because I'm with Steven. You guys don't even know. Before we even got on here we were screaming at each other through Voxer, like those motivational things Steven does. It was great.

Steve Larsen:

It's so fun. I don't know how that started but one day I just started, I was like, "This is Russell Brunson, this is my mentor. I can't screw this up. What's up..." You know, I was like ...

Joe Giglietti:

Do all your other guest call you and go crazy on Voxer too? [crosstalk 00:03:20]

Steve Larsen:

No, you're definitely the first one to ever do that.

Joe Giglietti:

Okay, awesome. I'm proud, I'm proud.

Steve Larsen:

Actually, I think I'll toss it inside if you're cool with it.

Joe Giglietti:

Yeah, absolutely sure.

Steve Larsen:

I'm going to put in the show.

Joe Giglietti:

I think it's time to give you a little dose of what you give Russell, I'm told, almost every day. Do you know what today is? Do you know what today is Steven? Today is the day that you get to Funnel Hack.

Today is the day that you get to change people's thinking. You get to change people's action. Today is the day you get to change people's focus and thereby change their lives.

Today is the day that you get to tell the world how to Funnel Hack. Are you with me? Shout yes.

Steve Larsen:

Yeah baby. We get... Let me hear your war cry.

Hey, thanks so much for joining though. I want to dive into a little bit more about how I met you. For everyone who's listening on the show, we were building some funnels. This was back when Russell was taking clients. We were building, it was for your daughter.

Joe Giglietti:

Yeah.

Steve Larsen:

It was for Emily. I just remember talking to Russell after we saw some videos of you guys doing stuff. He's trying to show me, showing about the client, showing what were going to do and the funnel we were going to build. I was like, "Man, this girl is incredible."

Then I immediately had the same thought, it was like, "Her parents must be incredible for her to be like that." Then it was a few months later, then I actually met you and I was like, "This guy is incredible."

I actually went to Dan Henry's and you were speaking and, no joke, I was like, again, "This guy is incredible again." I actually thought you bar none were the best speech of the entire thing.

Joe Giglietti:

Thanks man.

Steve Larsen:

I'm dead serious. I told Russell when I came back and everyone else. I was like, "He just crushed it." You were taking off. You were telling these amazing stories of things you had been going through at the same time that we were working. I had no idea about any of it.

Anyway, whatever else you'd like to go into or share, whatever, but do you mind telling people a little bit about the backstory of how you got into this world, sales funnels, funnel building, and what put you here?

Because I know you've been around, you're certainly a professional. You went around, real estate, right? You did lots of different things.

Joe Giglietti:

Yeah.

Steve Larsen:

How did you end up here?

Joe Giglietti:

I'm an entrepreneur...

I did take one job out of college, I lasted two months. I had to go because I told them they had all kind of things they needed to do and I was going to fix it for them, and they were averse to change. Surprising, right, a corporation averse to change.

Steve Larsen:

Yeah, that's the first thing that happened

Joe Giglietti:

Yeah. I'm like, "I think I'm going to go do my own thing." So I went and started a real estate business and was investing in real estate. Really learned marketing there. At first I didn't know I was learning marketing. It was like the general public that's like, you think about marketing you're like, "That's a category." You're like, "Oh yeah, just do some marketing." What does that even mean?

Steve Larsen:

I know it's so fluffy for a while. Yeah, it's totally fluffy for a while.

Joe Giglietti:

So yeah, we did all kinds of stuff t...

SFR 70: Ecomm Funnels! Special Interview with Bryan Bowman Aug 15, 2017

Show notes

Amazon, Walmart, Etc. Secrets of the ecommerce world ...

What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to another fantastic episode of Sales Funnel Radio. Now, this episode is part three of our six-part series where I'm diving deep into the six different categories of people using ClickFunnels to blow up their businesses.

This episode is all about eCommerce and there's a lot of ways to pull off eCommerce, there's a lot of ways to do it, and a lot of questions that everyone know who's in eCom has the answer from their beginning. Am I going to self-fulfill? Am I going to drop ship? Am I going to go for high ticket, low ticket, high volume? Am I going to brand it?

Is it just going to be a straight sell and one off? Is it going to be community behinder? Am I going to be the brand behind it?

There's a lot of things involved with eCommerce much like any business but I think I really enjoy what my guest today has to offer. I would take notes, see how he's doing it. He's got a great community behind him called ecomunderground.com and he's got a cool little offer for you guys at the end which I think you'll enjoy. Anyway, massive value, it's free for you so anyway, I think you guys will enjoy it.

Let's jump into this episode and we got three others coming up deep into the industries that I know out of one of the six applies directly to your business. I hope you guys will enjoy the series so far, let's jump right into it.

Announcer:

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels and now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Steve Larsen:

All right, guys. How is it going? I have with me a very special guest today and honestly one of my favorite categories of sales on the internet in general, very excited to learn more of the deep, dark ninja secrets of how to make this work. We're going to talk about eCom strategies today with the expert and my friend, Bryan Bowman.

How are you doing, man?

Bryan Bowman:

I'm doing amazing. How are you doing, Steve?

Steve Larsen:

I'm doing awesome, living the dream. Doing really good. Hey, thanks for being on the show here, like I say and eCom is probably one of my favorite, one of my favorite personal category for income generation, whether someone doing it on the side or it's a full-time thing.

What a lot of people would probably realize is that when Russell went out and hired this data scientist to come through and look up through all the users of ClickFunnels and try and find patterns, eCom was actually the highest revenue generating industry overall out of all of them.

Everything, info products, I mean anything. If you guys want to pay attention, I mean, get a piece of paper out, take notes.

Bryan is going to drop some massive gold here and super excited for you guys to learn more about eCom which is a space I'm personally very interested in as well.

Anyways, Bryan, if you can just let us know how did you even get into eCommerce? It's a newish industry as far as kind of the wave of the internet taken over things.

Bryan Bowman:

Yeah, yeah, for sure, man. I mean, first of all, just to back up what you're saying, there is something really powerful about selling physical products.

Steve Larsen:

It's so cool.

Bryan Bowman:

This is something that I'll talk about a little bit but I do want to talk about how you don't have to choose one or the other and this is really what a big part of my message is right now because it's what we're doing in our brands and it's what's working in my community with my students is that what I have found, because I'm really, really entrenched in the physical product sellers universe or world. There is this mindset that it has to be one or the other.

Where I'm really shaking things up is I'm telling people that we can have it all and physical products have their own power but info products have their own power as does a third category of product that I'm going to encourage those who really want to build a well-rounded business and a business that's going to be sellable and build an empire that I think they need to have as well.

We'll leave that for a minute and I'll answer your question, I'll answer the first part of this which kind of like my backstory. Yeah, man, I've been involved in selling I guess products online or physical products for a long time.

For me, it was really a hobby like literally all the way back to college I was buying, it was crazy, I would buy books and I still to this day I'm understanding why this worked but it's still a little confusing to me. I would buy books on eBay and then turn around and sell them on Amazon. The quickest arbitrage ever.

Steve Larsen:

It's straight up arbitrage, that's awesome.

Bryan Bowman:

That is available to everyone like everyone can go on eBay but I mean, I'm kind of joking like not understanding why. I mean, it's because of the confidence Amazon has.

People trust Amazon so much so some people feel like a little sketchy about eBay, maybe they don't want to buy from there and literally I would buy textbooks for five bucks and sell them for 55 on Amazon. It was crazy.

Steve Larsen:

Geez.

Bryan Bowman:

That was like a little side gig in college but I've been always leveraging the internet to sell physical products but really where it got really serious for me was about four years ago and for some of your listeners, they maybe selling on Amazon or maybe they've heard about this Amazon gold rush that's happening and four years ago it's kind of the wild west.

I mean, FBA was around but not a lot of people were using it. That's where I started and basically FBA is where you can send in all your products to Amazon. They fulfill the orders and you just create the brand and ship everything off and then list on Amazon. Now, that was awesome.

You're leveraging Amazon's traffic which is very cool.

At the time, I need to figure out what I was going to do because we've talked about this a little bit, Steve. My wife was having some health issues and we were just trying to figure out what do we do because I needed to be home more, there's no way I could keep working my corporate job as actuarial consultant like traveling all over the place.

I needed to figure out a side hustle that was going to make some extra money and ultimately free me from my job and that's really why I double down.

Literally I would work all day long in a cubicle like nine to five either traveling, doing actuarial stuff, come home, eat dinner, and from like 7 PM till 3 in the morning, I was creating listings, working with my designers in Germany.

Then I was talking to manufacturers in China at 1 AM because they are like on the complete opposite time as us in the U.S. and I'd be Skyping with them, seeing the factory, seeing samples. It was crazy.

That's how we launched our first brand on Amazon and started leveraging that platform and really pretty quickly I think maybe because...

SFR 69: Professional Services Funnel! Special Interview with Yanni Fikaris... Aug 08, 2017

Show notes

In this 2nd episode of our 6-part series, Yanni shows the funnel behind his painting business...

Steve Larsen:

What's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Now, this is part two of our six-part series. This episode, I'm going to dive deep into the professional services category. This is one of the six categories that we know people are using ClickFunnels for especially, and so, number two here is professional services.

Now, if you are a dentist, a lawyer, a doctor, a chiropractor, a painter, anything where there's a trade involved. Whether or not you had to go to school, there's high skill involved with the actual service of the product. You're going to love this episode.

What I did is I've interviewed ... His name is Yanni Fikaris. You'll hear the numbers as he talks about it, but he's pulled 160 grand with $900 in ads--it's ridiculous!--in only three months. He's only had a ClickFunnels account since March, which is ridiculous.

Anyway, without further ado, let's dive into the episode...

Announcer:

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business, using today's best Internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Steve Larsen:

Dentists, lawyers, doctors, chiropractors, painters, anyone with a trade is going to love the episode that we've got for you today. This is honestly a category that's the holy grail of anyone I know who's a funnel builder. They're trying to go after people who've learned a trade, somebody who is trying to sell a specific service, someone who's trying to sell a specific skill, and it's not an easy area.

Two days ago, I see a post by our speaker today, our guest today, basically saying, "Hey, look! I'm spending just a few dollars in leads, and I'm making a ton of money every month," and it's inside of what I call, what Russell calls, and what ClickFunnels calls the professional services category.

I thought, hey, I've got to get him on the show, and I'm excited to have him. Hey, everyone, if you could welcome with me, Mr. Yanni Fikaris. How you doing, man?

Yanni Fikaris:

I'm doing great, man, how are you?

Steve Larsen:

Dude, I'm just doing awesome. I was super excited for today. I had a hard time sleeping last night, because most people don't figure out what you have figured out, and I don't know that you've realized that yet, as I've talked to you, either.

Yanni Fikaris:

It's a short time coming, but it's a lot of bumps.

Steve Larsen:

Sure, sure, absolutely. Do you mind? Just tell us a little bit about yourself, and then I'd love to hear about what you've pulled off, because it's pretty unique, man.

Yanni Fikaris:

Yeah, I have a painting and refinishing company. It's been in the family. It's changed a little bit from when my dad and my uncle ran it, but we're a house painter, and we do specialty finishing, a lot of cabinet refinishing.

My specialty is spraying, so I really can bring down the crew size and give a really good product because of our spray application. It's harder to do, but it's a niche, and that niche is what promotes me on Facebook, in the advertising. It's that specific niche. I coupled that with what I've been reading from Russell.

What he's putting out there is these blue, the blue waters, and I was like, "You know what? This is pretty interesting." I mean, I'm not the sharpest guy, but I was like, "I've got to give this a shot."

Steve Larsen:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. It's funny. I've visited your site. Obviously, I've looked at your stuff, and you don't look like ... I mean, you don't necessarily look so much like a house painter. I mean, it looked like I was entering some kind of cult world. I mean, it was awesome. You have such awesome branding, such awesome sites, everything else.

What eventually led you to get into the Internet space as a painter?

Yanni Fikaris:

Well, we were spending a fortune in print, and one day I'm going to the mailbox, and I'm taking all this print, all this advertising from all these people, and I'm just throwing it in the trash every day. Then, I eventually put my recycling bin next to the mailbox, because I would just take out print, take out the bills, and throw everything into the recycling bin.

Steve Larsen:

I think we all do that, yeah.

Yanni Fikaris:

Yeah, I think, ultimately you either bring it in the house and put it in the recycling or take it outside. One day I'm thinking, man, we're spending 10 to 20 thousand dollars a month in advertising, and my newspaper and my print people are telling me, "Oh, if you get 1/1000 of a reader, it's good. It will pay for the ad." That's what they always say, "It's going to pay for the ad."

I'm thinking, man, if I spend 20 grand and I make 20 grand, I didn't even have to do any ... It wasn't even worth it, so an old friend of mine that I knew through real estate was friends with Russell. I was watching The Profit, and I watched Russell help one of these guys in a funnel. You see, I empathize with the small business, as opposed to people who are just selling other guru, how to advertise on Facebook. You need to know the business. You need to know what it's like to sit at home and worry.

Our family's owned small businesses before. We've had restaurants. We've had takeout places. This isn't my first one. It's not going to be my last. I can sit in your shoes and work on your problem. You put me in any ... That's why I like The Profit. I can do that. I'm a systems guy. I can figure out where you're weak and where you're strong and make anything efficient.

I put two and two together. I found ClickFunnels. I did the demo, and I was like, you know what? I think I can do this. I really wasn't a big Facebook guy at all. I really just started doing Facebook in November of last year. It hasn't even been a year. It was pretty user friendly. My first funnel was horrible, but, like you guys say, it's really just about how it works.

It doesn't have to look pretty...

Pretty can come later, if it really needs to be. I went from spending a fortune to really bringing my ad cost down.

Right away, it didn't work, but my ad cost was still a lot less, so I was spending a minuscule amount and getting deals, and people were starting to see it. Then, you see when the user rate starts, or the views start to actually increase. People start to share it, and people start to know your brand. It started to click, and I got that aha moment. I was like, dude, this is good.

Steve Larsen:

I went nuts when I saw your post. I was like, holy crap! Who is this guy? This is awesome. Holy crap. I started just scrolling, everyone just going nuts about it, everyone else tagging everyone else in it. I was like, this is amazing. This is absolutely ... It's so unique what you've done. I have really two areas I just wanted to dive into.

Number one question: First of all, you're selling your main service outright, right? I mean, that's the main thing of the funnel selling, right? You're not doing like a lead in. You know what I mean?

Yanni Fikaris:

Yeah. I g...

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