You are an entrepreneur by birth, but you are a funnel hacker by choice… On this episode during Russell’s first presentation at Funnel Hacking Live, he talks about what it means to be a funnel hacker. Here are some of the awesome things in this episode:

-- Find out what the difference is between a regular entrepreneur and a Funnel Hacker.

-- Hear an emotional story about how entrepreneurs can change people’s lives when they are super passionate about their art..

-- And find out what mantra Russell and Clickfunnels are going to push for the next 12 months, and why it matters.

So listen here to the first part of Russell’s first presentation from this year’s Funnel Hacking Live, about what it means to be a Funnel Hacker.

And I’m curious, for each of you, when was it in your life that you were sitting there and you realized that you were a little bit different? The laughs tell me I’m in the right room, good. Do you remember the first time you’re sitting there and you’re like, ‘I think I’m different. I think differently than all the people sitting around me in the classroom.” Do you guys remember that, that moment?

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-- DotComSecrets: Get a free copy of the "Underground Playbook For Growing Your Company Online With Sales Funnels."

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What’s up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today’s episode is steaming to you from beautiful Puerto Rico where I’m taking a much needed vacation/mastermind retreat and break after Funnel Hacking Live. But I wanted to do a couple of special episodes, while I’m out of pocket, out of the country. I think I’m technically still in the country, but you know what I mean, out of the states, to share with you guys some of the highlights of Funnel Hacking Live.

Obviously I’m not going to post all of the audios from all of the presentations here, but there were some key ones that I really did want to share with you guys. In fact, some of my keynote presentation from the opening day, which I’m really proud of, that I wanted to get in the mindset of all of our Funnel Hackers. I’m going to share with you guys right now. So the next probably 3 or 4 episodes will be parts of my Funnel Hacking Live presentations. But this first one, when I kicked off the presentation, I wanted to talk for a little bit about what a Funnel Hacker is. What makes you a Funnel Hacker? In fact, we gave everybody at the event at Funnel Hacking Live t-shirts that on the front said, “Entrepreneur by choice, but Funnel Hacker by birth.”

So what is a Funnel Hacker, excused me, flip that around, “Entrepreneur by birth, Funnel Hacker by choice.” That makes way more sense. So you’re born as an entrepreneur but you chose to be a Funnel Hacker. So what does that actually mean? What did you choose to be part of? Why do you listen to me, why do you come to our events, why do you use Clickfunnels, what is the difference between a typical, traditional entrepreneur and a Funnel Hacker? And that was just kind of my opening, kind of how we kicked off the event.

So I’m going to have my brother grab that part of the audio and post it here for you guys to listen to and hopefully it helps you guys to understand a little bit more about the community and about who you are, why you are here, why you’re different, why a Funnel Hacker is different from a traditional entrepreneur and why that matters. So with that said I’m going to queue up the theme song, and when we come back you guys will have a chance to listen to part of my keynote presentation from Funnel Hacking Live 2020.

We gave everybody who came today, either last night or today when you guys were registering, we gave you guys all a t-shirt. And the quote on the front of the t-shirt, it says “Entrepreneur by birth, and Funnel Hacker by choice”. And this is something, it was interesting, I was actually at a wrestling tournament with my kids and I was watching my kids and I was coaching and I saw somebody who had a shirt on that said, “Athlete by birth, wrestler by choice.” I remember seeing that and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.” That called to me and I started thinking about it in this context. And I said, all the people that come to Funnel Hacking Live are entrepreneurs right, you guys were all born that way.

And I’m curious, for each of you, when was it in your life that you were sitting there and you realized that you were a little bit different? The laughs tell me I’m in the right room, good. Do you remember the first time you’re sitting there and you’re like, ‘I think I’m different. I think differently than all the people sitting around me in the classroom.” Do you guys remember that, that moment?

I remember sitting in class in elementary school, I’d be sitting there and the teacher would be talking and I was like, “I don’t understand what they’re saying.” And I’d look outside and see the kids on the playground and I was like, ‘I just want to go out there and create and do stuff.’ I’d be fidgeting in my seat and it was hard to pay attention, and I struggled. I struggled through school, as a lot of entrepreneurs do.

And I remember all through junior high, all through high school and even through college, thinking I was dumb. If people ever asked me, “What are you studying?” “Oh I just study wrestling. I don’t care about school.’ And the reason why I always had that response is because I always thought I was dumb, I just assumed that I was, because I couldn’t understand what the teachers were saying, I couldn’t memorize the things they were telling me and then regurgitate them and I struggled on tests, and all those things were really hard for me.

And it wasn’t until towards the end of my college when I started learning about this world, about entrepreneurship, about what was possible, and it was the most exciting thing in the world for me, I’m sure it’s the same way for a lot of you guys, especially some of you guys who are newer, just kind of starting to learn about business, and starting to feel that excitement and that joy.

I remember sitting there listening to some people that I met who were starting businesses and I hear them talk about it, and every single minute it was like Christmas, it was so exciting. And I remember that as I’d start learning things, even up to college, I didn’t think I was a reader. I didn’t like reading, but I think it was because most of the books I read weren’t interesting to me. But I still remember the very first time I read a book, it was a business book and I learned a principle, and I was like, “That’s interesting.” I took that principle and I applied it to my business, and I saw my business grow. I was like, “Oh my gosh, that is the most exciting thing in the world. I learned something, I applied it, and I made more money.”

And I was like, “I want to learn something else.” So I read another book, and I’m like, ‘There’s three cool things. Let me try that.” I tried this, this, and this. I tried it and my business grew and I was like, ‘This is the most exciting thing in the world. This is like a treasure hunt every single day.” And I got into reading and studying and learning and going to events because I was looking for every one of these little gold nuggets I could get and apply to what I was doing, to help what I was doing grow. And that’s when I realized that I wasn’t dumb, I was just not interested in the same things that other people were. I was interested by growth, by business, it was the most exciting thing in the world for me.

I think for a lot of you guys, if you’re here in this room, you’re probably the same way, am I right. You guys were born as entrepreneurs but you’re here today because of a choice you made. A lot of people hear the entrepreneurial call, the call to contribution, as Alex Charfen calls it. We hear the call to contribution, we know that we want to do something, we want to create something, we want to give, we want to serve. But a lot of people don’t listen to that, they ignore it, and they forget about it. But the fact that you guys are here in this room means you heard the call, and then you made a choice and said, “I’m going to do something about it. I’m going to start a business. I’m going to take this idea, I’m going to take this thing, I’m going to create it. I’m going to do something different.”

And so while you’re an entrepreneur by birth, you are a Funnel Hacker by choice. That’s why you guys are here with us today. We’ve got almost 5000 Funnel Hackers in this room, which is insane. I’m so excited to be here with you guys.

So the question then is, what in the world is a Funnel Hacker? We’ve got Funnel Hackers from all around the world, these are some of the kids in Kenya that we build schools with. We bought them all Funnel Hacker t-shirts, last time we came out, we got Funnel Hackers everywhere. So what is a Funnel Hacker? Outside of this world, people don’t know what that means. So I want to kind of define what it means to me, and hopefully what it means to you as well.

We recently made a new manifesto and I’m going to kind of go through this, but this is the Funnel Hacker manifesto. I believe it’s on the back of your guys’ programs as well. So I’m going to talk about, I’m going to kind of break this down, piece by piece. So the first thing here is the Funnel Hacker is a new breed of entrepreneur, they’re smarter, leaner, faster, and free.

What’s interesting about this community that’s different than any other event you come to, everyone is coming here with their own businesses. We don’t put people into business, this is not a business opportunity. What this is, is you guys all have businesses, we’ve got businesses from every range of the spectrum. People that have, there’s dentists, there’s chiropractors, there’s people that are Lasik surgeons, there’s people that sell courses, there’s people that do coaching and people who do live events. There’s every kind of business you can dream of, physical products, people doing franchises. It is insane how many businesses come into this world.

Clickfunnels is not something that creates businesses, that’s not what we do. What we do is we are a tool and a training platform to help your business go faster. That’s what we do. So as a Funnel Hacker, when you come into this world, you have to understand that our goal, our mission is to help you take whatever it is you’ve already got, that’s your business, your job, and our job is to help you to amplify it, to make it go faster. That’s the mission we have, that’s what we stress about all the time. How do we do that, how do we make it so the entrepreneurs can move faster and faster and faster?

So as I was going through this, Funnel Hackers are the new breed of entrepreneurs, what does that actually mean? And I started thinking about it. The Funnel Hackers are the people in this room, not people that are like, “Oh yeah, I’ve got a business.” How many of you guys understand that you don’t just have a business, but you are insanely passionate about your business? The thing that makes you different than a typical entrepreneur, a typical business owner is that you are obsessed with your thing. Every one of you guys have your own thing, you have your own business, whatever it is that you do, and you’re obsessed with it. You want to be the best in the world at it.

The dentist or the chiropractor, or the small business owner who is not obsessed is not here. They are at home doing the thing. You guys are here because you’re obsessed with it. You want to do more. You’re obsessed with the thing. You look at your thing as your art. Some of you went to school for your art. Some of you guys have learned it on your own, but it’s your art. How many of you guys feel like what you do, your business, is your art? Yes. I feel the same way, our business is our art, our creation. This is what we’re doing, what we’re giving such a huge percentage of our life to, and if we don’t believe in it that much, then we’re in trouble.

So the first thing is that Funnel Hackers are obsessed with their thing. And the second thing, and this is what really differentiates you guys, is that you are also, not only obsessed with your thing, but you’re more obsessed with the marketing of your thing. You understand that no matter how amazing your art is, if nobody sees it, then what good is it. It hasn’t helped anybody, hasn’t changed anybody’s life. It’s because of that that you come here to learn how to market your art. I can’t make you guys better at what you do, but I can make you better at getting the word out about what you do. That’s what’s different. That’s what we do here. That’s the first step.

Number two, a Funnel Hacker believes that their business is a calling. How many of you guys feel like your business is a calling? A Funnel Hacker believes that their products, their services, and the messages they share have the ability to change the lives of the people that they have been called to serve. I want to tell you guys a personal story about a business owner, an entrepreneur, somebody who believed this.

This is a picture of my beautiful wife Collette, give Collette a round of applause. There she is. I don’t know how, but I convinced her to marry me, which was the most amazing thing that ever happened in my life, I wonder if we can move this table up a little closer, sorry don’t have to do the jaunt back to the back. So there’s my wife Collette, who I’m grateful that she’s here and this is one of my favorite things at Funnel Hacking Live, she come every year and it’s just like, it’s fun to see her in this environment, so make sure you guys all get selfies with her, she hates it and it will be awesome. I’m just messing.

So after Collette and I got married, this summer we’re celebrating our 18 year anniversary, which is amazing, thank you. Can you imagine being married to me, could be a nightmare. I don’t know how she’s done it. But a couple of years after we got married, we decided that we wanted to start a family, and we were so excited about starting a family and went through the process, and after about, I’m so sorry, that, where are we? This is day one, what’s going to be happening by the time we’re done. Anyway, we tried to get pregnant and unfortunately we weren’t able to. And we tried for a year, year and a half, and it started to get to a point where we were really, really scared, like, ‘What in the world are we going to do?”

Your whole life you talk about growing up and finding your wife, getting married, having kids, that’s the plan. That’s the process. And we found out we were able to have kids we started freaking out, what are we going to do then? What’s the purpose, why are we even here? And it’s a scary thing, I know that a lot of you guys have gone through this process, some of you guys are probably in it right now, and you feel the pain of it. And I don’t make light of that at all, I remember what it felt like. I remember the pain that we were going through as a couple. Especially as all the people that we knew around us, that we loved were having kids, and it was just like, we’re so excited for them on one hand, but on the other hand it broke our heart every single time.

And we didn’t know what to do and we were trying all these things and we were reading the books and reading the online articles and all the things trying to figure out what to do and nothing was working. And I remember I was driving to the office one day, or maybe I was at the office, and Collette called me. She’s like, “Guess who’s on Oprah right now?” And I’m like, “I have no idea.” She’s like, “There’s this fertility doctor on Oprah right now talking about how to help people get pregnant.” I’m like, “Oh that’s awesome. How does it work?” And said, “No, no, you don’t understand. It’s the doctor who lives in Boise, Idaho.” I’m like, “What?” that’s where we lived, right. And she’s like, “The doctor is in Boise, Idaho.” I’m like, “Are you serious? Call him right now. Let’s go, let’s do this thing. Let’s figure it out.”

So she hangs up the phone, she calls the doctor, two days later we’re in the doctor sitting in the office, talking face to face with the doctor, we started saying, “How does this work?” And they gave us some shots and some pills and some things, and month number one, we went through the process to try and get pregnant, and you go back for the test, and nothing happened. We’re like, “uh.” They’re like, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. Sometimes it takes a couple of months. Let’s come back next month and try again.”

So we come back the next month and go through the process, we try again, nothing happens. Then we start getting discouraged like, “Do we really want to do this again?” It’s expensive, and when you put all your energy and excitement into this thing and it doesn’t happen, it’s hard. We decided let’s try one more time. We went back the third time and went through the process, I remember it was during my senior year, I was in the pac 10 wrestling tournaments, and Collette had to give herself shots in the stomach every single day, and it was just this scary thing.

We went through the process, that month comes to an end, we go to do our test, and we come back home, and it all happened to be the same day as my graduation, and we had my parents who were driving up from Salt Lake, Collette’s parents driving up from Burley, Idaho, waiting for them to show up, and about 5 minutes before they show up the phone rings. I pick it up, and it was the assistant to the doctor and she said, “Hey, I just wanted to let you guys know you’re pregnant.”

And we’re like, I look at Collette, I’m like, ‘We’re pregnant.” And she’s like, ‘There’s no way!” and we start crying, we’re bawling our eyes out, and all the sudden both sets of parents pull into the driveway at the exact same time. And she looks at me like, ‘You can’t tell anybody.” I’m like, ‘What?” tears streaming down our faces, we’re trying to act all cool. They all come in and give us hugs, we’re talking, we’re looking at them, and we’re both crying and they’re looking at us like, “What is going on?” and then I look at Collette, she looks back at me, and she’s like, “Okay, you can tell them.” I was like, “We’re pregnant.” And we start freaking out, it was amazing.

A couple of weeks later, we went in to get the ultrasound, I pull out a magazine, I’m waiting for them to start, and all the sudden I heard the doctor say, “There’s two of them in here.’ And I said, ‘wait, you started?” I look up and on the screen you see this. I was like, “What? Two kids. We have no kids. That’s a lot of kids.’ And that’s where it all started 14 years ago with the twins, this is Dallin and Bowen. Dallin is baby A, Bowen is baby B. They were born 14 years ago, and now 14 years later, this is what our amazing, cute little family looks like.

And I share that story with you guys because for this doctor, what they did was not that big of a deal. They went to school, they learned the thing, here’s the drugs, here’s the process, here’s how it works. But that doctor, that entrepreneur, that person believed so much in what they did, that they went out there and tried to get the message out about their art.

Do you think it was easy getting on Oprah. No, I tried for like 6 years before she cancelled her show. It is not easy to get on Oprah. Whatever that doctor did, they did something and he went out there and he said, “I believe in my art so much, I believe it can change people’s lives so much that I’m going to do whatever it takes to get on Oprah.” And because that doctor put forth the sacrifice and learned how to market their art, they got on Oprah, Collette had a chance to see it, and my life was changed forever.

Every good thing in my life happened because there was an entrepreneur that took a risk, who did something that didn’t make a lot of sense, to put themselves out there to change everything for somebody else. The thing that makes us entrepreneurs weird, while the majority of the world is trying to get rid of responsibility, entrepreneurs look at something and say, that is a problem, that’s my problem, it’s not my responsibility but I’m going to take and figure out a way to solve this problem. That’s what makes entrepreneurs different.

So I want you guys to understand that right now you may be here at different points in your business, some of you guys are at a high spot in growth mode, you’re having fun, some of you guys are in the beginner mode and you’re struggling, some of you guys are in between. I want you to understand, when you really look at it, say “Look, my business is a calling. I’ve been called by someone higher, something higher. It’s calling me to do this. I am here placed on this earth to serve other people.“ and when you look at it through that lens, everything else becomes easier.

When you look at it like, “I’m trying to figure out how to make more money for myself.” business becomes harder. When you look at it from this lens, life becomes so much easier. There’s no way I would have 5000 people in Nashville, Tennessee in January here, if I was trying to make a bunch of money on this. I believe my message so much, that’s why I keep talking about it over and over and over and over and over, so I be consistent with it. That’s why you guys are here today.

Okay, number three, a Funnel Hacker is in control of their destiny. They start without a safety net, venture capital is a four letter word and bootstrapped is their middle name. Funnel Hackers need to find their own destiny, they create their own luck, they build their empires, and they change the world. You know as we have, I’ve told this story a lot of times, as we’ve been growing Clickfunnels and looking what the next phase, the next step is, people always come to us, they’re like, “How in the world did you grow Clickfunnels without any money? It makes no logical sense.” I say, “Well, it’s the principles we teach all the Funnel Hackers. We use funnels, we practice what we preach, we drink our own Kool-aid. We build funnels that grow our companies profitably.” And that’s the power, and gives you guys so much freedom that you don’t even understand.

So that is our manifesto again on the back. It ends with, “I am a Funnel Hacker, and I’m just one funnel away.” I got one more thing to talk about before we kind of transition, and this is something we’re going to be pushing a lot over the next twelve months. Inside of this entrepreneurial world, I think the message that some of you have been hearing over and over again is wrong. The message of “We need to hustle, hustle, hustle.” The message of all these different things that are coming out there. I don’t think that’s the message of entrepreneurship, not true entrepreneurship.

The message of true entrepreneurship is this, how do we over deliver? And this isn’t just in your business, it’s in all aspects of your life. It’s interesting, I did a podcast about this a little while ago. I talked about how somebody had asked me to do something and I was like, “Oh yeah, I can do that for you. Sure I’ll try that.” And I stopped for a second and I was like, what kind of response is that? If my boss came in and was like, ‘Hey, can you do this.” “Oh sure, I’ll try it out.” That’s not the right response. I want somebody to come to me and if I say, “Hey can you do this for me.” Just say, “You know what, not only can I do that, actually not only can I deliver on that, I’m going to over deliver on that.’

And this is the thing I want us all thinking about in all aspects of our life. In our relationships with our family, you show up and you’re like, “Oh I’m doing the thing, I’m doing the motions.” Or you coming and saying, “How in this situation with my wife, with my kids, with my spouse, with my whatever it is for you, how do I over deliver in this situation?” How do you over deliver in your business relationships, how do you over deliver in your businesses? As you guys start thinking about that over and over and over again, it’s going to change everything for you.

How many of you guys when you got here to Nashville and you saw the little mini city we built here, and you saw the swag you got and the shirts and the bags and all this stuff, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, Clickfunnels over delivered.’ How many of you guys felt that as you came here today? Our goal is to do that in every single interaction. We talked about it with our staff. Every interaction with someone, it’s not like I’m going to do the thing, I’m going to deliver, I’m going to get it done. It’s like, no, no, no. I don’t want people to get things done. I don’t want people to deliver on things. I want everybody to over deliver. And this is our message for the next year. How do we over deliver in all situations? So are you guys okay if we over deliver this week for you. You okay with that? Alright, okay, for that some of you might say that you’re an entrepreneur by birth, but because you are here, you guys are Funnel Hackers by choice. That’s what it means to be a Funnel Hacker.