During my live on stage Q&A, I did not expect her to say this… On today’s episode Russell shares an interview he did with Lindsey Stirling at Funnel Hacking Live 2019 and talks about what some of the things she said were and why he wasn’t expecting it. Here are some of the amazing things you will hear in this episode:

-- Why Lindsey thought that America’s Got Talent was right about her not being good enough.

-- Find out what Lindsey’s book is about, and how it follows a theme of her life.

-- And see why Lindsey is also involved in Operation Underground Railroad.

So listen here to find out how Lindsey Stirling got started, and how her story is similar to that of an entrepreneur.

And I also think there’s this inner gut that guides you, and sometimes you get to a point, and I’ve done this in different ventures, where I realize this isn’t a path that I should pursue anymore. I think this door is closed and it’s time to go to a different one. But this door, I knew that it would open. I just felt it. And it was, I just need to keep going, because that inner compass will never lead you astray. And to me, that’s God.

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What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson, welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. I hope you loved the last episode where I had, let you guys in behind the scenes to hear Lindsey Stirling at Funnel Hacking Live share some amazing wisdom and ideas and thoughts. And I’m even more excited, if that’s possible, for today’s episode. Because after we queue up the theme song and come back, I’m going to let you guys listen in behind the scenes of the live Q&A I did with her afterwards on stage. We go over a lot of cool things in there and I think you’re going to love it.

But the one thing that impressed me most, I want to kind of put it from my perspective, so that when you hear it’ll hopefully have the same impact on you that it had on me. But I do know that before we brought her onstage, I knew that she was on America’s Got Talent, and I do know that she made it through a couple of rounds and then they kicked her off and said she wasn’t good enough.

So I specifically I wanted to ask her that question and find out, “What did you feel? What was going on in your mind?” And what I assumed she was going to say was, “Oh yeah, they screwed me. Blah, blah, blah, whatever.” Or “They kicked me off. They didn’t know who I was and I was going to prove them all wrong.” That’s what I assumed she was going to say when she responded back to that answer.

But instead what she said was so different and so much better and so much more powerful. What she said afterwards was she got off the show and she went home and she looked at herself and she realized that they were right, she wasn’t good enough yet. So because of that she went back and started practicing and working hard until she became good enough, until she became the Lindsey Stirling we had a chance to experience at Funnel Hacking Live.

Such a powerful thing. I thought the message of “Screw you, I’m going to work harder anyway.” would have been powerful, but the message she left instead was a thousand times more powerful. And a lot of times the market tells us no and we have to look at ourselves and say, “You know what, the market is right sometimes. And instead of me fighting it, I’m going to go and I’m going to become good enough.” Such a powerful thing.

Anyway, this interview is amazing. It’s not super long, I’ve never interviewed someone on stage before. I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit nervous. It’s only about ten minutes long, but I hope you get a lot of value out of it. Once again, if you guys can go to a Lindsey Stirling concert, support her, she’s amazing. And she was such a huge addition to this year’s Funnel Hacking Live. Alright let’s queue up the theme song and when we come back we’ll jump right into my live Q&A with Lindsey Stirling.

Was that amazing or what?

Lindsey: Thank you.

Russell: What an awesome way to end out this extraordinary last four days together. It’s fun because we were planning, as soon as Funnel Hacking Live ends we start thinking, “What’s the plans for next year?” We were just talking about this and I was like, ‘Man, I want something to end where we can just leave on cloud 9 and everyone’s got the energy and everything. We should have a concert.” And then we’re like, “We’ve never done that before. We don’t know how that even works.” And then, {inaudible} talking, but before. We started talking about different names, who would be possible and then we said your name and everyone on my team was like, “If Lindsey Stirling could come, that would be the most amazing thing ever.’

And you guys just experienced it. Was that the most amazing thing ever? It’s so great.

Lindsey: Thank you. Thanks for having us. You guys are amazing, as I’ve said. Thank you so much for your energy and it sounds like it’s been an amazing week.

Russell: It’s been a lot of fun. Well, cool. I wanted to take a few minutes just to interview her because we were actually going to try and do this earlier today, but we ran out of time. So I wanted to do this just partially because I want you guys to connect with her more, and be able to follow her more, and I’m going to talk a little about that towards the end, but also so everyone understands some of her journey. Because some of her journey, I think, is very similar to a lot of your guys’ journeys as well.

So I think my first question is, where did you come up with such a unique thing? There’s people who do violins, people who do dance but I’ve never heard of anyone besides you who did both. How did you come up with that?

Lindsey: You know I, well a funny fact I guess about me is, a lot of people ask me, ‘what came first, the violin or the dancing?’ And the thing is I’ve played the violin my whole life. It started when I was 6. I did not start dancing until I was 23 years old, and I’m a self taught dancer. So it’s very ironic that I’ve always loved dance and I thought it was such a beautiful art form, and I wanted to make my performance as a violinist more engaging than just, I always felt so stiff.

So I really started working on incorporating movement into my performances. But you know, the funny thing was is that I had this vision of being a dancing violinist, and I couldn’t dance. And I think it’s so important whenever you are starting out on a venture or a journey whether it’s an artistic one or a business one, there are things that you’re going to be like, “But I don’t know how to do that. How could I possibly be a dancing violinist if I don’t know how to dance?”

Well, I started step by step by step in a very literal sense, teaching myself very simple choreography that just started with like a look and a wink and a little shoulder. You know, just very minimal movements, and now I can literally do backbends while I play. I can spin, I can learn choreography and it all was just step by step and because I had such a clear vision and I was so determined.

You know, sometimes the less you know in a way, the better it is. I don’t think I realized how difficult it would be, so I naively just went into it with everything I had and worked tirelessly until I could do it.

Russell: That’s amazing. Very cool. So my next question is, before Crystalized blew up for you and you’re going through I’m sure practicing and doing things and videos and all sorts of stuff, and things weren’t blowing up for you, first off how long was that period of time for you? And second off, what was it that kept you going, like moving forward during that time as opposed to just throwing it in and walking away from it all?

Lindsey: Yeah, I probably started to pursue and write my own music and make this art of dancing and playing and I probably worked at that for 2 years before I even discovered YouTube. And during that time I had some, I had a lot of times I kind of fell on my face, sometimes literally, sometimes more figuratively speaking. One of which was extremely public, it was in front of millions of people on America’s Got Talent.

I was, my little artistic heart was absolutely broken on that show. I felt like my spirit was just broken at what I thought was going, I thought this was going to be the biggest moment of my life and what changed everything. And I ended up getting absolutely publicly humiliated and told in front millions of people on live tv that I sounded like strangled rats when I played the violin. I was told I didn’t have what it took and I should try something else, I would never make it.

And that was one of the hardest things to get over because I was literally terrified to step on a stage again after that. I was like, “I just don’t know if I can face that kind of humiliation.” It was in the back of my mind every time I would go to step on a stage, “I am probably going to fail.”

But I took a little break from it just to re-gather my confidence again and to work on my craft. And I realized, I think the most important thing about that story, which took me years to realize, is that they told me, “You’re not good enough.” And people now always are like, “Oh America’s Got Talent, they were so wrong about you. They missed this diamond in the rough.” And looking back on it, no, they actually were right. I wasn’t good enough, but the most important word was left out and it said, “I wasn’t good enough yet.”

I had literally just invented this idea of dancing and playing a violin and I hadn’t put in the time yet. I wasn’t good enough. But I just began, once I realized that I’m just not good enough yet, I worked for the next year and a half honing my craft and getting good enough so that no one would ever be able to say that again, and it wouldn’t be true.

And I also think there’s this inner gut that guides you, and sometimes you get to a point, and I’ve done this in different ventures, where I realize this isn’t a path that I should pursue anymore. I think this door is closed and it’s time to go to a different one. But this door, I knew that it would open. I just felt it. And it was, I just need to keep going, because that inner compass will never lead you astray. And to me, that’s God.

You can call it whatever you want, whether it’s the universe talking to you and guiding you, but I do believe there is something so much greater than ourselves that guides us and gives us inspiration and gives us that courage to press forward. I’m spinning.

Russell: I know, me too. They’re all spinning up here. So for those who want to know more about you, I know in fact, my mom’s down here, my mom in the middle, she’s like, ‘Have you read her book yet?” Will you tell everyone about your book, so if people want to learn more about you and your life and everything. I’d love for you to tell them about that and have them all go buy the book tonight.

Lindsey: There you go. My book is called The Only Pirate at the Party. It’s very thematic of a theme in my life, where it’s based off a true story where I went to a birthday party that when I first moved to LA, and it was a Peter Pan themed birthday party and I was really excited. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, I have a pirate costume. This is perfect. I’m going to make so many friends.” And it was that mean girls moment where I walk into the party and it was a regular party. Nobody was dressed up and I was a full blown pirate. And I was like, I had the hat, I had a tin foil hook I made so I was Captain Hook. And there was like a Tinkerbell cake, and that was the only thing that let you know maybe this was a themed party.

And I remember there was that moment of like, no one’s really seen me yet. No one really knows me, I could get in my car and go home and no one’s the wiser, or I could just own it and go into the freaking party and try to make some friends. And I decided to go in and make some friends, and kind of laugh about my, and I met a lot of people because I was the only pirate at the party.

But it was such a like, you know what, this seems like it’s a little bit of a theme of my life and that’s why the book has all these stories. It’s not like any of us walk through life trying to be like, ‘I’m different. I’m the only pirate.” You know, but I think we’re all different. We are all so unique and those are the things that make us wonderful, they’re the things to be celebrated. The joys, the hardships and it all leads into our story.

So that’s what my book talks about. It talks about my experiences going through an eating disorder and depression and America’s Got Talent and all these times when I hit the bottom. And through my own gifts and uniqueness decided it’s time to get back up again.

Russell: Awesome. Everyone go on Amazon and get that today. Alright, so my last question for you is revolving around Operation Underground Railroad. So I know you’ve been involved for a long time with them as well, and you had a chance to watch the documentary. So last year, at this event in Orlando was the first time we introduced this world to Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad. We watched the first documentary, we raised just over a million dollars during that event, which is insane and amazing. And then Tim actually flew from our event to Haiti to pick up his kids and then flew back, which was so cool.

So I know you’ve been involved with them for a long time, but I’d love to hear some of your thoughts about what they’re doing and the importance of it and kind of how you’re getting involved now as well.

Lindsey: You know, I don’t, like I get chills just thinking about it. The documentary was so, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. It’s I think what they are fighting is the greatest evil that could possibly happen. It’s the greatest evil, it’s the plague of our time. And I don’t think there is anything that is more important than freeing people from slavery.

And Tim’s book is amazing. Slave Stealer’s if you haven’t read it, it’s on audible, you can listen to it as you drive around. But it’s so, you know I’ve written a lot of music based off of my experience of going through anorexia and depression and I do a lot of these metaphorical images and music videos about being trapped. And they were to represent a time when I was literally trapped like a prisoner inside my own mind, and that was really, really hard. But it just makes me think like my next mission, I’ve told that story now, my next mission is to talk about how people can literally be trapped by somebody else.

And you know what, I think the greatest thing about having a voice and having success is that then you get to pick, you get to tell your story, through my book, through my music, through my art, but then I also get the opportunity to help other people tell their stories. And each one of you, as you grow your business and your brands and whatever it is, this is giving you not only a platform for the things you’re passionate about, and the things you work so hard for, but it’s giving you a platform to share whatever message you are passionate about.

And I’m super passionate about Operation Underground Railroad. I’m so excited, I was so excited to hear that they were a part of this event and that you guys support them. Anyways, I can’t think of a greater cause.

Russell: Awesome. Thank you.