Recently I acquired my mentor’s company, and we’re working over the next 12 months turning it around. If you want to know what we’re doing and why, listen to this episode.

A lot of you guys probably don't even know that the core foundations that ClickFunnels were built on were the principles that I learned from Dan Kennedy and that we just turned it into software and turned it something that everybody could do. So that's why it's so exciting. And we recently acquired the company, which is a huge honor for me because I have this unique opportunity and chance now to take my mentor's stuff and to continue it on and bring it into the future. And I'm excited.

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Hey, what's up everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. I hope you guys have an amazing day. I had a really fun, interesting week working with Dan Kennedy's company, Magnetic Marketing, and a whole bunch of other cool things. Some of you guys may or may not have heard, but we acquired his company recently. And with that, we got 40 years of intellectual property. And so this episode, we'll talk about what we're doing with it all, what it's going to look like, why I'm so excited, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff.

All right. So number one, how cool is this? I keep pinching myself. When I first got in this game, my first mentors, my first internet mentor really was Mark Joyner, which helped get me to a certain level. And then I started looking for more stuff and that's when I bumped into Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer, and I started going to their mastermind groups and their events. And man, it really was like the next evolution for me is just really understanding these core principles and things that have been working since the beginning. I always kind of tease these guys are teaching how to use fax machines and the Pony Express to deliver marketing messages, because a lot of it was like direct mail bootcamps and stuff like that, all kind of older school stuff.

And at first it didn't make sense to me how this stuff worked until really I started realizing through Dan that these things that we all think we are, like we think we're internet marketers, he's like, "No, no, no." He's like, "The internet is a channel. It's a media channel." And a lot of us, we think Facebook, Instagram, YouTube is media channels, but for Dan's rule, it's like the internet's one channel. There's direct mail, there's TV, there's radio, and internet is a channel. And nowadays obviously it is I think the best and the coolest channel, but the principles and the philosophies and the psychology and the persuasion and all the things that are working today on the internet are things that were pioneered and developed through direct mail, through TV, through radio.

And so, so much of Dan's stuff, he's had a chance to work with everybody for the last 40 years. I say 40, not four, the last 40 years has been just kind of all around these things. And it's just like ... Anyway, so I digress. Again, when I was getting into this, I started learning those things and all the sudden I was like, oh my gosh, the things I'm learning that they did in their fax marketing or their direct mail, I can use on the internet, I can use on the Facebook ads, I can use, and for me really, it was what changed my business. And honestly, for most of you guys, your businesses, as well.

A lot of you guys probably don't even know that the core foundations that ClickFunnels were built on were the principles that I learned from Dan Kennedy and that we just turned it into software and turned it something that everybody could do. So that's why it's so exciting. And we recently acquired the company, which is a huge honor for me because I have this unique opportunity and chance now to take my mentor's stuff and to continue it on and bring it into the future. And I'm excited.

So this week, on Monday, Tuesday, this week, we had the existing Magnetic Marketing team, the people that are still there, the company flew out here to Boise, and we spent two days kind of figuring out what's the plans, what's the future? How do we get this thing back to the point where there's 10,000 active members on membership and there's all these things that are happening?

And so as they showed up, we also had a chance to look at like, okay, what did we actually acquire here? What's all the intellectual property? And it's insane. There's 40 years of stuff. And some is not relevant, and so we're sifting through those, but most of it is some of the best stuff ever. And it's cool, because as we were building out funnels and looking at these courses that they've been selling for $2,500 or $3,000 or $5,000, and it's just like, they're not selling a lot of them. I'm like, ugh, it's because they just need to be packaged differently. But I also think that the pricing is different nowadays than it was 15, 20 years ago, even.

And so what's going to be cool is we're taking, you know, Dan's written, I don't know, 20, 30 books, we're taking each book and we're figuring out what courses sync with it, what content fits in this process. And we're building out new funnels, like book funnels that take people through all the products and the courses and the events that Dan did related to each book. Every book he wrote, he wrote a book and then they'd do an event teaching it and then they would do workshops and they'd do all these things. And so every book has got like an archive of stuff that nobody's ever seen before, which is insane. And I'm going through the archives. I'm like, oh my gosh, I thought I owned everything Dan ever had, and I had never seen this, never seen this, never heard of this. And so it's just so exciting. We're having a chance to come pull things out and plug them in and all these things.

But as excited and as nerdy as I am in this process, the thing I wanted to share with you guys is that the things that you are learning, the principles you are learning, the things that you've been, especially going deep with me and you've been reading DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, Traffic Secrets, literally all we're doing is using that playbook. I'm coming in to this company where I learned a lot of these principles with, but the company's been sold twice since Dan and Bill ran it. So they've fallen away from a lot of the core principles that made them great initially.

And so what we're doing literally is like, hey, what's the value ladder? Okay, what is the front end offer? Okay, here's the funnel, what do we need? What's the free plus shipping? What's the order form bump? What's upsell one, upsell two? What's downsell? You know, like walking through and then, okay after someone buys this, where's the next step we take them? What's the next tier on the value ladder? How do we move them up one tier? And then okay, from there, what content do we need, what pieces, and we're kind of just literally just taking the same blueprint that you guys have been learning forever. I laid the blueprint out for you guys, like this is the blueprint. It doesn't deviate. It doesn't change.

It's the same for every business. I don't care if you're selling info, products, or coaching, or physical products, or dental, you know, cleaning people's teeth, or if you are doing chiropractic adjustments. It doesn't matter. It's all the same. The framework's the same. It's like a house. The framework's the same. You have a bathroom. You have a kitchen. It doesn't matter if you're making a $30,000 house or a $30 million house, the framework's the same. And so we're just bringing up the same frameworks you guys have been learning and studying and then taking all of the pieces, the content, the copy, the assets and everything, and just plugging it into that framework.

So I wanted to share that with all you guys, because I know that, and I'm probably one of the causes of this because I get so excited and I want to launch a thousand funnels because I know the profits, I know how they work. I can just do it over and over again. And so we roll out a lot of things. But if you actually look at this strategy, me coming into this new company and having 40 years of intellectual property and a million courses and products and all this stuff, the strategy is the same. It's the same thing. And so if I was you guys and you're still not sure what to do, start there, start with the DotCom Secrets book, read the book and say, okay, what's the value ladder? What's funnel number one? What's offers inside of funnel number one? And coming back to the basics.

I get people, it's crazy, on Instagram, I don't know if you guys ever click over to the other tab, which is messages that don't go in the inbox. I look at that probably once a week or so, just to see if I'm missing any conversations with people who I need to be having conversations with. And I look over there just to make sure I'm not missing anything. And as crazy as it is, I will tell you that each week there are probably anywhere from 20 to 50 people that message like, "Oh your stuff's so good. Where do I start?" Or, "I love your stuff. I can't figure how to get started. What should I do?"

Like oh my gosh, you guys, this is simple. Read book number one. That's why I wrote the first book, so you'd have the foundation. Go read DotCom Secrets. The same thing that we're doing now, after we acquired this huge company, it's like okay, apply principles. It reminds me of Vince Lombardi. They said the first year of every football season, he'd walk out to his team. We're the best in the world, you know? And he'd hold the football and be like, "Gentlemen, this is a football." And he's just showing them, here's the foundation, here's the beginning. Here's the start of this.

And I think that's what sometimes we forget, is we're trying to figure out the secret ninja, Facebook advertising hack, and the this and the that. And it's like, no, no, no, come back to the fundamentals, come back to the foundation. Gentlemen, this is a funnel. Right? Okay. Which funnel is it? Value ladder, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then you're just plugging the pieces into the model that's been proven to work over and over and over again for decades. And like I said, initially, it's the stuff I learned from Dan and learned from Bill, and such an honor to have a chance to come back.

In fact, it's funny, because I was like, I'm going back to the advertising archives. We're pulling all the old sales letters back from when Dan and Bill ran the company. It's like, okay, this is what we need to see, because this is when it was done correctly. You know, everything in the last decade, since some of the other people who bought the company, they messed up the model. They didn't understand the model. They bought it, not understanding it. And they jacked the whole thing up. We're coming back, thinking back to the foundations, back to the fundamentals. What worked before? How does this work? Plug in the system.

And so I'm excited. You guys will see the first iteration of what we're doing. We'll be launching probably the first week in January or maybe the last week in December. Not quite positive, but around there. And then over the next 12 months, you'll see the process. You'll see it happening in real time. You'll see, oh, there's the front end of the value. Oh, he's moving us up a step. Oh, from there we're moving to the high ticket. Oh, from there there's a continuity. You'll be able to see it rolled out in real time over the next 12 months, which will be really, really fun. So I'm pumped. I'm excited. Hope you guys, are as well, to see behind the scenes of the process. But that's what we did this week.

So if you guys, if you are at the beginning of your business, I would stop what you're doing. Go reread DotCom Secrets, and then do what we just did. Do two day planning meetings. Okay, what's our value ladder? What's the funnel? What are the offers inside the funnels? What's the first funnel we're going to launch? And then just focus on that. Because we built out a whole value ladder. This is the thing that a lot of people make mistakes. They build a value ladder and they're like, okay, I've got to build all these things. And then they spend the next six years building all the things.

No. You build a value ladder so you know where you're going. But then you just build the first thing. Like for us, it's okay, now we know where we're going between now and the next three months. The only thing that matters is this funnel, that's it. Nothing else matters. And blinders on. Let's go. And that's what we're focusing on for the next, well, it shouldn't take three months because we're ClickFunnels. Come on now. But the next 30 days, the next 60 days, is picking the one and focusing on it and not trying to build out the coaching program, the high ticket, and all these things in between, it's like, no, just focus on the one. The value ladder is there so we know where we're going, but we begin from our funnel and launch it and then we start the process from there.

So anyway, I hope that helps. Again, if you're just beginning, go read the DotCom Secrets book, take two days with your business partner, your family, your friends, whoever you're working with, and map that out. If you've got a business that you just acquired and you're trying to figure it out, do that. If you are struggling in business and you're like, it's all chaos and nothing's working, and you're frustrated, take two days and do this. It's key. So hope that helps you guys.

Anyway, we're getting close to Halloween. I've got my Inner Circle. Some of you guys know we relaunched Inner Circle at Funnel Hacking Live. We actually relaunched three different tiers. First is the Inner Circle for life, which is $50,000 a year. And we have, I think like 70 or 80 people signed up for that, which is crazy, but I'm excited to be able to bring back the Inner Circle. It's been closed for two years. And then we opened a second tier of Inner Circle called the Category Kings. And we started the pricing there at $150,000 a year. And there's only 14 spots. I was like, oh, it's going to take us a while to fill that up. We sold those 14 spots in two days and we have a waiting list of probably 30 people who are waiting to be able to send me $150,000 for that, which is insane. I didn't think that was going to happen. So note to self, I should have launched two Category King groups. Anyway, not this year, I'm too tired.

And then we have a third tier called the Atlas Group, which is going to be, I know we have people on the waiting list. We haven't actually opened that one yet, and it's going to be really fun as well. So anyway, I'm excited because next week, all next week we've got five days of meetings with the first two tiers of Inner Circle and it's going to be a lot of fun. So anyway, I'm sure I'll probably box you, or not box you, probably do podcast episodes somewhere during that window next week and share some of the insights and the ideas and things that are happening there.

And if you want to be in the Inner Circle someday, I always tell people this is where you're ascending to, get in my Inner Circle. That's where I have a chance to work really close in very small groups with you guys. So that is a goal. Nowadays you have to be a Two Comma Club winner to qualify for it. So set that as a goal. Get your Two Comma Club and then get in the Inner Circle with us, coming out, because there's a lot of fun stuff happening. All right, thanks everybody. Appreciate you all for listening, and excited to show off what we're going to be doing behind the scenes with Magnetic Marketing, Dan Kennedy's company, over the next 12 months. Thanks everybody, and we'll talk soon.