If you’re struggling to find time amongst all the things to get your business out there, this little hack/shortcut should help get you to the finish line fast.
It was just thing after thing after thing and then I spent all the time, the energy, the effort, and then I finally launched it and guess what happened? Nothing. Nobody came and saw it. And I was like, oh man, I put in like a year's worth of work and nobody gave me any money.
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What's up everybody? Good morning. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. I'm heading down to day number two of the writing retreat and I wanted to talk to you guys today about a question that one of my friends sent me, which I think, obviously if one person asked me there's probably a hundred or a thousand of the same question. And the question was all around how in the world do I find enough time to do my day job, plus my hobbies, plus my family, plus my passion, and also start building this business at the same time? So I want to address that, give you some thoughts, some ideas, so we will dive right in after we come back from the theme song.
Alright everybody, I hope you guys are awesome. First off, we had such a good day yesterday at the writing retreat and like I said, we're writing all of the copy for ClickFunnels 2.0, the launch, the offer and it was just so much fun to get a whole bunch of creatives and smart people in a room and then for me to have a chance to share the vision, like here's what's happening with ClickFunnels 2.0 and here's how the market is shifting, here's what we're going, just giving them the brain dump. We literally had everybody, all the writers and there's like five or six of us. Everyone went to a different room in the penthouse and closed the door and we had four hours, like, all right, write your sales letter, write your VSL, write your script, write whatever it was. Right. So everybody went and they wrote their own thing, which was really cool.
And then at the end of the day, we came back and had everybody sit up and read it. So they like stand in front of the group and perform it, which was, I think everyone, everyone was really nervous because it was like you're putting this thing out in front of it and you're reading it to everybody. Most of our writers, they write really well, but they've never, they normally like present in front of a group and it was so much fun first off to hear them each present their own scripts. Like it was fascinating and it was fun to see their personality and the different angles and it was cool. Everybody had their own angle on how they presented it and like the hook and the store and all that kind of stuff.
It was interesting because everybody's scripts kind of like bumped into each other in the middle. Like we all used very similar analogies. We all used different things that was just really fascinating, like the cross sections of where things lined up. So when it was done it was like, okay, these are all amazing, now what do we do? And then what was cool, is we took one script that I think was my favorite from like the video standpoint. So we took that. I was very proud of my headline. I was the only one that wrote a headline if I'm honest. So we used my headline, that VL script and then I took parts of the way I did the call action, the offer and stuff like that. I put that in there.
So I put it on the one huge doc and then I went through and I went through everybody else's scripts and I found the things they had said and talked about or different chunks like, "oh, I loved how so-and-so did this part. I love how so-and-so explained this." And then I went in the Google doc and I highlighted where those parts would fit in. I kind of highlight it and made a comment. I said, "okay, let's see if we can weave this part of the storyline from so-and-so script into it here and then so-and-so's thing into here" and I kind of did that throughout the entire thing. Now we've got one kind of baseline script we're going to be working off of.
And so it's a day, the writers are going to go deep on those and try to do another pass and polish it up and clean it up and figure out more ways and get it better and better, which is going to be really cool. Some of the other scripts that we weren't able to use as the core video or VSL, they're still really good. We're going to have some of the writers work on taking those and developing into actual ads and other things that we can use and for ads, email sequences, etc.
Anyways, it was a really fun day yesterday. I really enjoyed it and definitely going to have to do it again.
So anyways, on the way home as I was driving back, one of my buddies messaged me and he's someone who's awesome. I have so much respect for him. He is an amazing father. He's got his day job, which is consuming. A lot of people, when they in this business, they will ignore their job to try to do their side hustle and this guy's got integrity. He works hard at his job and he's focused there and then he gets done, he also is a wrestling coach. So he's coaching wrestling. And then after that, he is being a husband and a father. At the same time, he's trying to build this thing he's passionate about.
He spent the last couple years working on it. He's been through OFA a couple times, he's been to Funnel Hacking Live. So he's in it, right? Just like all of you guys, like he's in it. He sees the dream, sees the vision. He's trying to create something amazing for his family. But at the same time, he hasn't gone live yet and he hasn't launched it. He hasn't sold anything yet. He's just like trying to figure out "how in the world do I find the time between all things I'm doing to be able to dedicate the time."
And as you guys know, the first time you jump into this business, it's not just like, it's not like something simple like, "Oh, I'm going to learn how to flip hamburgers and do it. Right?" There's so many things, so many skill sets you have to learn.
First off, just the strategy of how this even works, that's number one. Then you got like, now I know strategy. I got to figure out like, how do I create a product? So you have to develop a product, which for a lot of people, that's a whole brand new thing, right? Like how do I write a book or how do I create a video? How do I make a course? And then after you write it, well, how do I edit? How do I make a PDF? How do I make a video? There's all the skill sets involved and just the product creation, there's tons. Then the product's done and it's like, now I got to figure out how to sell it. How do I put it into members area now? Now I have a tangible thing, but now I got to figure out the words, what's the copy? What's the funnel? What's the upsells, the downsells and how do I position? And I need graphic design.
The first time you play this game, there's a lot of pieces. And it takes time, it takes energy, it takes money, takes all the different things. And so as I say that, first off for anyone who hasn't had success yet, I'm sure you're thinking like, "whoa, what if it doesn't work? That's a lot of work." It is a lot of work up front, but after you've figured out and after you get it done, then it becomes easier and easier.
In fact, it's interesting because a lot of you guys know or have heard me tell my potato gun story a million times. But that wasn't actually the first product I created. I created some other ones first and the other ones took the longest, but I made the least amount of money on them, but it was my first idea.
I had to go learn all these things now. And I'm also going to tell you guys, not to be that annoying guy, but like, it was actually harder for me back then, because we didn't have ClickFunnels. I was also trying to figure out how do you buy a domain name? And then how do you hook the domain name to a server? And then how do you even buy a server? And then after you have a server, how do you FTP? And then after you FTP, how do you get it to show up and then I'd figure out how to like how to edit webpage and front page. And then how do you connect it to a shopping cart? And like, it used to be even harder.
So I'm just saying that, but I was lucky. I was able to do it in a time when I didn't have all the other responsibilities. I was wrestling and I was married, but we didn't have any kids. I didn't have a job. So I was able to, I had time to be able to figure those things out, but it was a lot harder back then.
Nowadays with ClickFunnels, we've taken so much of those annoying things off your plate, so you can move things faster, but you still have to figure out all the rest of the things.
Oh, Tesla, if you use auto drive, it's really cool. But if you don't pay attention to it, then it cancels auto drive. So I just got kicked off auto drive. So I have to hold my steering wheel for the rest of the drive to the writing retreat.
Anyway, I apologize. This is A.D.D. Russell jumping out for a second.
So what I was saying is like the very first product I built was the hardest because I had to learn all those things. Like it took me so long to figure out the stuff and then getting copy written. I remember I hired someone to write copy, because I didn't know how to write copy and I paid him 500 bucks, which was a ton of money for me back then. The copy came back and it sucked. I knew it sucked, but I didn't know how to fix it.
It was just thing after thing after thing and then I spent all the time, the energy, the effort, and then I finally launched it and guess what happened? Nothing. Nobody came and saw it. And I was like, oh man, I put in like a year's worth of work and nobody gave me any money.
I kept trying and trying, then you got to figure out the next step, which is how do you sell it? How do you drive traffic? How do you get eyeballs? And I spent the next few months trying to figure that out. I made a couple sales and when all of a sudden and done after the first year, year and a half, almost two, actually 18 months for me. After the first 18 months is when I started making sales.
It wasn't good money. It was like, oh, I made the product. I was, I was, I created, I selling for $67 and I made a sale and I was like, I made 67 bucks. I'm like 18 months in $67. Like if you do the math on that, it was like a penny an hour or less. Right. And I'm like, this is horrible. But what I didn't realize at the time looking back now is that when after I'd done it all and I launched that and it wasn't making that much money and it wasn't the best market, but I had learned all the skill sets I needed to do.
And so after I knew it, then I was like, oh, well, I'm going to do this potato gun thing. And like that went fast because I knew, all right, I just need a product. I need a videotape. I got to edit it. I got to put up a sales page. I knew the things. And so that one, instead of taking me 18 months to do, I did that next one in the month.
And the cool thing is I had met people along the way. Like I met someone who did graphic design. I met someone who could write copy. I met all these different people. And so the second time I have to go find all these people again, I was able to go faster. Launched potato gun, made a little bit of money, but not a ton.
And that I was like, okay, what else can I do? And I had another idea for a thing called article spider. So I created that. And that one went from 30 days I got that done in like, I know 21 days. Three weeks I got it done. And then that one did a little bit better.
I had an idea for the thing called forum fortunes. These are all the products in the cemetery of Russell ideas. That one, I found someone to create the product and that product got done in like five or six days. At that time, I had some momentum happening. I had sold a couple other things. So now I had a list of a couple hundred people. And so I remember I had that product done. I knew the designer. I knew the copywriter and boom, boom, everything got done really, really fast. I sent an email to my little list and remember to this day I had my very first thousand dollars day. And I was like, I had a thousand dollars day. This is insane.
And then I was like, wait, now what's the next idea? And I kept developing an idea, after idea, after idea, and we got better and better and faster and faster, and the momentum caused and created more momentum. Because after I got success with the first one, the next one, I had a customer list, the next one got a little easier and it got a little easier and got a little easier. Nowadays, I've got an amazing team of people, so we can pump out things very, very quickly. We got a list. It gets easier and easier along the way. The first one is always the hardest. One of the things I found is that for a lot of people, because the first one's so hard, they're putting the most time and energy, because they're nervous. Like what if it fails? And you get in to this like perfection-ness syndrome because it's like, man, I spent 18 months of my life on this thing, two years of my life on it. If I don't do it right, then I'm going to feel like a failure.
Like I've been telling my friends and my family and all these people, this is going to be successful. And if I do it and it launches and it's not successful, oh, like what are they going to say? Right. And then, and that becomes the real fear and then causes perfections. And they start focusing on like tweaking this and tweaking that and tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, because you don't want to mess it up because you spent so much time and energy. Because you're thinking, man, if I don't get a big return on this, I only made a penny an hour and I'm going to look like a failure or I'm going to look not successful or it's going to be a status decrease for you.
Okay. And so that's totally understandable. Like I understand that. I relate that. Like I remember feeling that. And so what happens is again, we get into this thing where we're, we're trying to make it perfect. And that process of trying to make it perfect, takes away more time. And every waking second, all the energy goes into making it better and better and better, as opposed to getting it out there. And that is the lesson I want to share, is that the way you find the time is not so much, like you need more time. We all have the same amount of time. Right now I'm in the middle of launching four supplement companies, I'm writing a new book, we're launching ClickFunnels 2.0, launching, two and potentially three other brands while writing ClickFunnels Magnetic Marketing AEO and of these things, plus I'm coaching. There's all the things, right?
So we all have the same amount of time, so it's not time, it's momentum. And what I mean by that is the first time you do is taking 18 months. Second time takes 30 days. Third time takes 21 days, fourth time takes... And so it's because we get a momentum. The biggest problem is to tell your first one's done. You're not in momentum. You're sitting there in a spot working on getting it perfect. And you're stressing about that. And you're worrying about that. Things like that. And what I would recommend is we have to get a momentum as quick as possible. So what does that mean? Number one, it means we have to get out of the creative zone and into the selling zone as quick as possible before it's even finished. In fact, most people I recommend before you launch a product, we need to start talking about it today.
You need to start publishing like instantly, like the second you're like, I'm going to build a product on whatever. It's like, Hey, I need to get a momentum quickly. So the way to do that is you got to start publishing. So it's picking like even you're going to do a podcast or a blog or a Facebook live or just a post on your personal Facebook or something. But something that puts you into momentum, right. Puts you into creation, puts you into like something happening. So it's saying, as of today. And so I'm telling you all, everyone's listening this like this starts today, not tomorrow. So today you got to pick the platform, where are you publishing at? And do the one that's going to be the easiest. Because if it's going to be hard, you're not going to do it. So if it's like the easiest thing, I've got a Facebook profile, therefore I will go there.
Easiest thing is I've got Instagram, cool. Like it doesn't matter. I don't care if you have zero followers or whatever, it doesn't matter to this point. It's just starting. So going and doing a Facebook live and saying, Hey, or doing a podcast and be like, "Hey, I'm working on this project. I'm writing a book, I'm creating a course about blah. I'm going to document my journey here." And then just start talking about it and start talking about it. Start talking about it. Because as soon as you start me about it, now you're in momentum. Right? And now you have a chance to put these ideas out there and you thought out there and like it gets you in the creative mode. And it takes away the fear of like, what if I put something out there and it fails because typically most things we put out there initially will fail.
Okay. The first time I talked about funnels, it failed. It failed. It failed for years, failed literally for decades before anybody caught on, but it's getting into momentum. Okay. So that's the first thing. Number two is like just starting to sell something, like putting it out there today before it's done. Like not waiting for it to be perfect, but like starting to post something out there.
So again, if you just randomly post like, "Hey, I, this new product I'm creating want to buy it?" It's going to be a little hard. But if you start publishing it every day for the next two weeks, you're publishing something like, Hey, I'm working on this thing. And you talk about a technique or a tactic or something you're doing. And then you talk about the next day and the next day. And for two weeks on your personal Facebook profile or your wherever, you have the ability to publish anything. You're talking about this thing now after two weeks, it's easy to come back and say, "Hey, I'm working on this project. If anyone's interested, let me know. In the future, I'm going to be selling this for blah, but I need some case studies and some things. Anyone who wants it for the huge discount, let me know. And you can go through this process with me. I'll give you the course. Plus you can do one on one calls with me and I just want to, I'm going to get some success stories."
And boom that gets you into momentum. You can even get away for free at first, "Hey, I'm looking for some beta people. I'm looking for five people who can go through this program, give me feedback, but you have to actually implement it if you want. If you want me to give it to you." And now you're in momentum. Now someone's going through the course. Now they're looking at it. Now they're giving you feedback. Now you can make tweaks and changes. But now you're not sitting back in the creative mode, waiting and perfecting and worrying about that.
You're putting it out there and you're moving forward imperfectly. So I don't think for most of us that the real problem is not enough time. Like we have enough time. It says we're spending the time on trying to make the project perfect as opposed to imperfectly, throwing it out there and trying to get it working like testing on people, trying it, selling it, getting feedback, getting ideas, getting, like making it public. So many of us who are creators, we create in private and then whatever we're, we're selling. We, we post it publicly. Right? Ryan Hall talked about it in his book, perennial seller. He talked about this, the problem with, or not the problem, but the conundrum with, with all authors, right? Like you spend a year of your life writing this book in private. And then the fears, like what if I put it public and they reject it.
And so the default, what you want to do is you want to keep editing, keep correcting, keep, you know, making because it's like, it's less painful than putting it out there. Right? But putting it out there is how now you get the feedback. You find out what works, what doesn't work, the changes you get the tweaks. And like that's now that's when the business actually begins. Now you're in momentum. And now the next variation, the next version goes from 18 months to 30 days to 40 days. And I would even assume like the first product I'm putting out is going to fail. Therefore I need to put out quickly. So I know what the audience wants. So I can make version number two and version number three, because now that you know how to do it, you can start doing them faster and faster and faster. Right.
It's speeding up the process. But you don't know that until you put it out there. Okay. How many you guys remember zip brander? No one does. It was my first product. I sold a dozen of them. And then that was it. How many you guys remember article spider? No one. How many? You guys remember four fortunes? No one. Right? This is the graveyard of offers I had to do out there. But if I would've banked everything like, you know, four fortunes has to be the thing that works. I would still be, I would still be working on it right now. Right. I couldn't get to ClickFunnels or.com seeker searcher or any of my projects if I didn't put these other ones out there quickly. And so that's the biggest thing. Some of you guys have heard me talk about one of my favorite videos on all of YouTube.
It's by Jack Dorsey, the guy who started Patreon, it's called Work To Publish, go to YouTube and Google, go to YouTube and type in the word, Work To Publish. You'll see the video. And it's all about this. We can't pick what we're famous for. We only get to pick, like we only we're famous for what the market decides it wants from us. And so our job is to go out there and to publish as much as we can, putting as many things out there in the top of the funnel as possible. But if we spend 18 months, two years, three years trying to publish one thing, it's like spending the entire game, trying to make one perfect shot in basketball. Like it's not going to work. Like you got to take a bunch of shots.
Same thing in wrestling. Like if I just try, I'm just going to get one shot. I'm going to wait until it's perfect and shoot it. You're not going to win the match. Like you got to be out there doing it, doing it, doing it. Like you're putting it in shot. After shot, after shot, opening up like making situations, getting things out there to be able to create opportunities for yourself. It's the same thing in sports, same thing in business, same thing in publishing. And so anyway, that's some of my feedback. I hope that's helpful for everybody. Who's listening. Especially my friend who I think is amazing and is doing a great job. It's just, we need to get him. And all of you guys out there starting the process, start publishing, start talking about the thing, making it public as scary as it is. And right now it's just putting it out there, talking about it and people are going to tease you.
People teases me when I'm like, "I'm going to write a book."
They're like, "Okay, you're going to write a book. Like you barely graduated high school."
I'm like, "I know I'm going to write a book.
"On what?"
I'm like, "Marketing."
And that was way before I ever wrote a book. And now, hey 15 years later, people reading my book, but it's because I put it out there. I started talking about it and started moving and getting myself in momentum.
So there you go. I hope this helps. I appreciate you all for listening. And if you enjoy this or got anything front, please share it with somebody else. If your spouse is the one who's struggling, make them listen to this 100 times, then go to YouTube type in Work to Publish, watch that video and then start publishing. Let's go. Thanks everybody. And we'll talk to you soon.
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