An interesting thought that I got from some awesome person in Puerto Rico. On today’s episode Russell talks about ideas and why it’s okay if you happen to let some of them go. Here are some of the insightful things Russell has to say in this episode:

-- Why finding out that if you miss a big idea someone else will execute on it should motivate you to actually execute on it yourself.

-- Why you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you don’t execute on every idea you have.

-- And why you should use your ideas to build up your abilities on how to execute ideas.

So listen here to find out why Russell is no longer going to feel guilty about the 1000+ ideas and domain names that he has never executed on.

And I think a lot of times it’s always fearful like, I got this amazing gift from God, this idea. I can’t lose it, I don’t want to destroy it. I have to be very, very careful. So I’m sure a lot of you guys are hopefully like that. Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. But I think a lot of times we do that, or we get an idea and don’t do something with it, and then we feel bad and we’re like, “I should have done something with that. I feel guilty that I had this great idea and I didn’t do anything with it.”

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What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson, welcome back to the Marketing Secrets show, I’m excited to have you guys here today. Today I’m going to be talking about something interesting I learned about ideas when I was in Puerto Rico.

Alright, so I was in Puerto Rico and I can’t remember who told it to me, I think it was Jenna Kutcher, but it might have been somebody else, so don’t quote me. Then they told me to buy the book, and I did buy the book, and it got here and now it’s somewhere on the bookshelf. I don’t know the name of the book, but the concept was really, really cool. So I wanted to share it with you because sometimes it’s something that holds a lot of us entrepreneurs back.

A lot of times we get an idea, how many of you guys have ever had an idea and you’re like, ‘This is my idea, this is my baby. I love my idea. It’s the best idea ever. I don’t ever want to lose it or share it or ruin it.” So you start trying to do the idea, then you get the next idea, and the next idea. And soon you’ve got a lot of ideas. I know this was me for the first decade-ish of my career. Every time I had an idea I bought a domain and then I got a logo designed. So I have literally 1000+ domains, probably closer to 2000, sitting in my registrar that I never cancel because it’s an idea that I got out of inspiration or God or whatever. I got this idea and I love it, and I have a domain and I have a logo, but I never developed the idea.

And I think a lot of times it’s always fearful like, I got this amazing gift from God, this idea. I can’t lose it, I don’t want to destroy it. I have to be very, very careful. So I’m sure a lot of you guys are hopefully like that. Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. But I think a lot of times we do that, or we get an idea and don’t do something with it, and then we feel bad and we’re like, “I should have done something with that. I feel guilty that I had this great idea and I didn’t do anything with it.”

So anyway, in Puerto Rico, the person who shared this story with me, or this story was shared by an amazing person, was basically, and they were telling me from this book. They said that in the book there’s this lady and she got an idea for a story and she was like, “This is a great idea.” So she started this book, and wrote the first chapter and never finished it, and life got busy and then 2 or 3 years later didn’t do anything with it.

Then a little while later, somebody wrote this book and launched it, and it was a New York Times Bestseller. And she gets the book and she starts reading it and she’s like, “Oh my gosh, this is my story. This is the idea that I had. How  did somebody else get this idea?” and then the premise I guess, of the book, again I haven’t read the book yet, I’ll redo, I’ll do an episode, version 2 of this podcast after I find the book and listen to it. But the concept was so powerful. The concept is basically that there’s infinite amount of ideas in the world, and God gives us an idea and it’s like, “You can do something with this. You don’t have to, but here’s an idea.” And if we don’t do something with it, then he gives it to somebody else, and somebody else, until somebody takes it and executes on it.

So a couple of things, number one, when you do get an idea, it should motivate you to be like, “I should execute on this or somebody else is going to get it.” Or number two, if you have an idea and you don’t execute on it, not to beat yourself up because someone will get that and they’ll do something with it later, and I’ll wait for the next thing to come to me. I think there was a time when people always thought, opportunity only knocks once, you’ve only got one big idea. But I don’t think that’s the case. I probably have 30 or 40 ideas a day that could be like, “Oh that’s a million dollar business. Oh there’s another one.” There’s just not enough energy to do anything with them. But it was just kind of interesting because of that.

So the premise was basically the fact that ideas will come to you and again, number one is act on them if you’ve got them, because if not it’s going to go to somebody else. And number two is if you do miss one, not to feel guilty because there’s that guilt factor. I could show you my domain registrar. I think I’ve got 1000+, probably closer to 2000 domains, each one I’m paying 10 bucks a year for. That’s like 20 G’s a year I’m spending on domain registrars of ideas that came to me, and then probably somebody else has already executed on.

How many times have you guys, you’ve seen an idea and like, “Oh that was my idea. I invented Uber. Oh, I invented Uber Eats. I invented AirBnB. I invented Clickfunnels. Oh, I invented Traffic Secrets book.” or whatever. We all get ideas. I think that throughout your life, what our, one of our goals should be getting good at getting the idea and then developing it and turning it into something.

One of the, we did the Marketing Secrets Live Show today and one of the quotes on there was from Dean Graziosi about how an idea without marketing is just, it’s nothing, it’s just an idea. And marketing is what turns the idea into something real and tangible.

So I think for us it's like, for all of us, one of our jobs should be developing that muscle of like, when an idea comes how do I capitalize on it? How do I take this? How do I build my team, build my infrastructure, build things so that when the idea comes I can take it and I can run with it.

Or again, if it comes through and it doesn’t hit, not to beat yourself up over it and just be like, ‘Uh, I should have done a thing. I should have…” Just understanding that that idea is going to go to somebody and somebody’s going to take it because God needs that thing to happen, therefore somebody is going to take that idea and run with it, therefore he’s probably going to give it to a bunch of people.

I know that Clickfunnels, it’s funny because I think I’ve told this story before that Clickfunnels.com that we have right now, is the third time that we tried to build Clickfunnels. I tried to build it once as Clickdotcom.com and another time it was Clickfusion.com. We tried, there might have been more times than that? Instantclickfusion? Anyway, we had the idea and we tried to execute it, but we didn’t.

And I wasn’t the first one. I had tons of friends in the industry like, ‘I’m building a sales funnel builder.” I’m like, “Oh, so am I. Let’s race.” And we’re all stressing out because we’re all trying to execute on it. And none of us got it. And it took me three tries before I met Todd and Todd was the one who, he had the ability to execute.

Because I think a lot of times our job as we’re getting ideas is like, start building a team, start building infrastructure, start finding the right people around you so that when the idea comes you’re like, “Ah, I can actually do something with this now.” I had 5 good ideas that I couldn’t execute on any of them because I didn’t have the resources, the people, the whatever. But then when the right one comes, if you’re prepared, you’ll be able to do something with it and that’s kind of exciting.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Just something to think about. So when this next idea comes to you, just be like, “Okay, this is an idea. Is this my idea? Or am I going to let it pass? If it is my idea, how am I going to execute on it.” And if it’s not your idea like, “I’m going to let this one pass. Someone else will grab it and I’ll be super happy for them when they execute on it and this idea that I had becomes a reality for somebody else.”

Anyway, I think if you start looking at everything from that lens it will take away the scarcity that some people are like, you know the scarcity of like, “I’m going to lose the idea. I’m going to miss out. I’m going to, opportunity only strikes once. Only one good idea.” Those things aren’t actually true, they’re here all the time. It’s just opening your mind to it, being happy when people do take an idea and do something amazing with it. Be grateful, be happy for them, and then when the one comes for you be prepared. So preparing yourself now.

You know, I talked a lot at the last two Funnel Hacking Live’s I talked a lot about the who not the how. And I’ve talked about it on the podcast before. But I think a big part of it is like, the ideas come to us because it’s like, I want to, it stimulates your desire to create the thing. And you’re like, ‘I can’t create the thing yet.” So it’s like, “I either need to go learn these skills or I need to start building a team of people who already have these skills.”

So sometimes I think the idea is there to stimulate our growth and make us get prepared for when the next idea is going to come. Like if Clickfunnels, well Clickfunnels did come, I think we got Clickfunnels, this is the 3rdtime it came to me before we actually executed on it. So twice before the bouncing ball hit me, and we’re like ,’Oh.” And started working on it, and we didn’t have the capacity yet to be able to execute on it, even though we tried. We failed. It hit again, we tried, and then we failed. And then it hit again, and this time I had found the right who. I had found the Todd, I had found the people. I found all these different people so that way when it hit the next time we were able to execute and get prepared for it.

So be grateful for the ideas, even if you don’t execute on them, they are there to help increase and grow your capacity. And we have too many of them. At least for me. When I heard that, I was blessed on the other side, not feeling guilty about all my domains. I’m starting to think I’m going to go unregister 2000 domains and save myself 20 G’s a year on domain registries.

Anyway, I hope that helps you guys. We should have some new episodes coming out, we just recorded today a Marketing Secrets Live show, which is 2 or 3 podcast episodes coming out of that in the next couple weeks, you guys will like. And we have the book launch coming up in like 10 days from now, the Traffic Secrets book launch goes live. A bunch of other craziness happening. I turn 40 in like 2 days from when I’m recording, actually by the time you guys listen to this, I will have just turned 40. So I’m on the other side of the hill now, hanging out and going down the other side.

Anyway, with that said, appreciate you all, thanks for listening and we will talk to all of you guys again soon. Bye everybody.