Interesting thoughts after my whirlwind week.
On this episode Russell talks about what’s it’s like being an introvert in an extrovert’s business. He shares how you can still be successful while being introverted, just like him. Here are some interesting things in this episode:
-- Find out why Russell loves speaking in front of thousands of people, but can still be awkward one on one.
-- See how Russell is able to get past his introverted tenancies to still be able to sell a room.
-- And find out why you just need to start sharing your message and with consistency you will find your voice.
So listen here to find out how an introvert is making it in this extroverted business.
I’m really good at carrying on a conversation when people come and ask me questions, you know, but it’s like, we’re on mutual ground, they don’t really know much about me or whatever, I really struggle. I always try to think, I need to be interesting and ask them questions about themselves, but I’m just not as good at that. It’s just fascinating, the contrast of the night before I was onstage in front of all these people, people chanting my name and screaming and going crazy, people crying and this whole thing.
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Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome to Marketing
Secrets podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about what it’s
like being an introvert inside of an extrovert’s calling. Here we
go.
Alright so last week was a little bit insane. I think I only
slept about 2 ½ hours last night and I am really excited to fall
asleep. The kids are almost all in bed, but one of them is
finishing their homework so I’m like, I’m going to sneak away and
talk to you guys before I pass out and then go back and finish the
homework with them so. That’s why we’re here right now.
So last week there was an event that I wanted to speak at for a
long time and I got invited probably about six or seven months ago.
I was looking forward to it and then after someone else….I get
invited to speak at a lot of events, and unfortunately I have to
say no to most of them just because it’s hard to leave and travel
and be away from family, so it’s not typically worth the investment
or the time away, especially this level in the business. It’s tough
because it’s like, I’ve had people come back like, “Hey we’ll pay
you $100,000 to come speak.” And I’m like, I feel like a jerk
because to be able to travel there, being there, being able to
travel back, it’s like, I could do a webinar and clear way more
than that, you know what I mean, and be able to go sleep in my own
bed at night and be with my kids that night.
So it’s just tough unfortunately. But someone asked me, one of
my friends, James Malinchak asked me and since I was already going
to be speaking at WarriorCon, which is widespread event that I was
super excited to speak at. James is in the same city. So it was
like, “Sweet dude. I’ll just drive over and we’ll do this whole
thing.” So we’re at the event and I’m like, I’m going to be in LA,
what else is in LA? Tai Lopez is in LA, we should go hang out with
Tai. Justin and Tara Williams are in LA, we should hang out with
them. And it turned out to be really, really cool.
Here comes Bow-dog, who has been working on his homework. Say hi
to everybody.
Bowen: Hey!
Russell: Anyway, the vacation was crazy. Basically what happened
is Dave and I jumped in a plane and flew out there to LA, and at
night we got to the Warrior Event, so we decided to sneak in. We
were at the back and we had white shirts on and everyone of the
warriors got black shirts on that say “Warrior” on it. I
wasn’t speaking until the next day, but I walk in and they came and
grabbed the shirts and like, “Go put these on right now.” So we put
our shirts on so we could fit in with the whole cult-ture that
their building over there.
It was just cool. And then that night I was going to work on
slides, I was super tired so I just went to bed. Woke up in the
morning and I was going to work on slides, and I was super tired so
I didn’t and we went and got massages, don’t tell mom. Massages
were really good. Then after the massages I was going to work on
the slides, but then I didn’t. And then Justin and Tara came to
lunch, we hung out with them for lunch, which was awesome. Then it
was like, the ninth hour, or twelfth hour, however that works.
So I had to go get the slides done. So I went up into the room,
got my slides done, saw Kevin Anderson who does all our Funnel
Hacker TV stuff, he came to come film. And Brandon Fischer was
there as well, he does all of other video stuff. So it was kind of
cool to have those guys come out as well. They were filming the
room, walking around, getting a bunch of footage and everything,
which is pretty sweet. So you’ll probably see some of this on
Funnel Hacker TV soon.
But that’s kind of what’s happening. It’s so cool, Warrior was
insane. 600 men, just insane, everyone dressed in black, it was
really, really cool. I was teaching a lot of the Expert Secrets
book stuff, but as I was teaching it to them I was also showing how
Garret had done it. The process Garret had done to create the
Warrior movement, it was really kind of cool to be like, “Here’s
this piece of it, here’s how I did it. Here’s what Garret’s doing,
here’s what you need to do.” And kind of go through the whole
thing. So I think everyone thought it was pretty cool.
The only problem, it’s so bad. I started the presentation and
then I come up and Garret does this huge thing to get everyone
pumped up and excited and I come on stage and start my slides and
my slides aren’t working. And it’s like, I had done all this
research to find out, the day we launched Clickfunnels, it was like
138 days later that he had launched his and it had the dates and
time and all this stuff in the first slides. So it wasn’t like I
could just BS my way through the first three or four slides. They
had like pictures and the date and time. I’m like, “Ugh.
Well….”
So it was super anticlimactic for probably, seemed like an hour,
but probably the first 2 or 3 minutes. And then they came back, you
know you get kind of thrown off. It took me 5 or 6 minutes to get
back on and then I think the rest of the presentation went pretty
well after that.
That was awesome and then we got done and we were supposed to
leave to head to Tai Lopez’s house, which is like a 2 hour drive I
think, but also Stu McClarin was doing a charity event…..this is
homework, we’ll talk about that in a minute. We’re almost done bud,
then you can…..
So Stu McClarin is doing an online charity event, so I was
supposed to do an interview for that, so I jumped on at the hotel
before we left. And of course the hotel internet goes out. It keeps
going in and out, so it’s all…..but we did our best there and ended
up raising like $22,000 I think for that charity event, which was
really sweet to help some families out that have been struggling
with hurricane stuff.
Then jumped in an Uber, drove to Tai Lopez’s house, they asked
us when we got there, “What’s your hard leave time?” “We have to
leave at 11:00 sharp.” So we ended up being there until after 1,
almost 1:30 I think. We filmed to info products there, ate dinner
with Tai and then did an interview with him, which if you haven’t
seen yet, it’s online. It ended up being almost 2 hours long, it
was really good. I’m going to see if I can get it on the podcast,
so I may play here for you guys to hear. It turned out really cool.
If I do that I will explain some of the reason behind the
podcast.
But we got done with that at like 1 in the morning. Jumped in an
Uber and got to the new hotel somewhere else by 2. And then passed
out and woke up at like 6 because I still had to do slides for the
next day’s event. So I was working on slides all day. Then got
down, get onstage at James event, closed 30% of the room on our
package, did the whole thing and by the time we left, we were
driving to the airport and I’m like, I just can’t keep my eyes
open, I’m so tired.
We drive to the airport, fly home and it’s interesting, because
in those situations, I’m onstage, 100’s of people, everyone’s
cheering, I love that. That’s me, as Russell the extrovert. I love
that. My calling in life and in business is like, requires me to do
that, be good at that. Because I gotta stand onstage in front of
all of these people and entertain and inspire and hopefully give
them the tools they need to be able to move forward.
But what a lot of people don’t know is that’s not natural to me.
I’m not naturally very extroverted. In fact, my whole entire life
up until probably 10 years ago, when I kind of started into this
business, it wasn’t even when I started this business, it was way
into the business before I realized I had to start learning how to
speak, talk. But I was super introverted, in fact, still am very,
very introverted. But when I’m in those situations, I’m at an event
and I’m onstage, it comes out of me. I love it, I really, really
enjoy it but it’s funny because Dave, who’s there at all these
events, he told me, “You’re onstage, you’re present, doing your
thing, loving it. Then you get off stage and someone comes and asks
you a question and you just shrink in this weird introverted, like
you can tell I’m not comfortable in that kind of situation.”
At James Malinchak’s event, it’s funny because I haven’t spoken
at an event like that, where you speak and sell and people can ask
you questions afterwards for a long time. And it was just tough
because I’m in the back of the room and probably for an hour and a
half I had people ask me question after question after question.
Which is just like, super uncomfortable for me typically. And
introverted Russell was really, really struggling.
And then it’s funny, I got home, we took an Uber home, flew
home, got back to my house about midnight and the next morning at
like 8:00 we had this big church Christmas party that my wife was
in charge of. Such a crazy week. So we get there and there’s you
know, all the entire church, all these people, and all this stuff,
and I’m there with the kids because she was stuff ready. So I bring
the kids in and it was just interesting. I come in and totally
introverted Russell took over. Not comfortable in that
situation.
I kind of sat down at the table with my kids and there’s all
these amazing people who go to church with us, that I know who they
are, I like them, I like them a lot. There’s especially a bunch of
guys that I really think are just awesome. And it’s so weird how
much fear I have to go and just say hi to them. I hate it. That’s
one thing that really frustrates me about myself. In my element,
it’s easy to go out there and people come to me, because it’s the
brand I built. I go to events and people come and they want to ask
me questions, so it’s really easy. It just very naturally comes to
me and I can talk to them.
But I go to these other places where no one really knows who I
am, and it’s just, I’m a person. It’s hard. I don’t know why I
struggle so much to just walk up and say to them and talk to them.
It’s interesting how much that introvert side of me, how much I
struggle with that.
I remember sitting there the whole Christmas party, looking
around and seeing all these amazing people, people that are
fascinated by us, “I want to go talk to that person, I want to ask
them a question, or do whatever.” But I honestly have so much fear
inside of me, it drives me nuts. All this fear keeps me from going
and saying hi, just going and talking to them. And even when they
do come say hi to me or whatever, it’s just weird.
I’m really good at carrying on a conversation when people come
and ask me questions, you know, but it’s like, we’re on mutual
ground, they don’t really know much about me or whatever, I really
struggle. I always try to think, I need to be interesting and ask
them questions about themselves, but I’m just not as good at that.
It’s just fascinating, the contrast of the night before I was
onstage in front of all these people, people chanting my name and
screaming and going crazy, people crying and this whole thing.
And then the next day I’m around people that live near me and I
can’t even…it’s interesting. So that’s a little glimpse of what it
looks like to be an introvert in an extrovert position or calling.
So unless you think that I got everything put together, I still get
scared to death. One of my biggest fears in life is calling people.
I hate calling people on the phone, it scares me to death. That’s
why I use Voxer with my inner circle members, that’s why I never,
the only phone call I ever answer is from my wife. Everyone else I
make go to voicemail, then I listen to the voicemail and if it
sounds awesome I call them back, otherwise I just don’t call them
back at all. I’ll text them back or I’ll vox them back. Just
because I have these weird fears about that.
Anyway, it’s not just me, it’s everyone. So don’t feel bad if
you are like, “I’m too introverted I’m never going to be good at
this business. I don’t dare talk to people.” I get that. Still to
this day, I get so nervous behind it. But that’s one of the powers
and beautiful things about this kind of business. My thoughts are
like, when you are introverted it’s really hard to do face to face,
one on one selling. Nothing scares me more than that.
It’s funny how we built huge call centers and stuff like that
and I don’t think I’ve ever picked up the phone and called someone
and sold them on the phone. I don’t think I would even have the
guts to do that yet. I can stand in front of a room of a thousand
people or five thousand people and sell.
For example, I’m speaking at Grand Cardone’s event in February
and there’s supposed to be somewhere between 8500 and 10,000
people. I’m so excited for that. The extrovert in me is like, yes,
this is going to be awesome, I’ll step onstage, I’ll speak, I’ll
sell. It’ll be so much fun. And then afterwards in the hallway,
anyone asks me questions I get all awkward and weird. Hopefully
someday I figure it out.
So hopefully my kids, hopefully Bowen over here, will never be
nervous. Do you get nervous from talking to people at all?
Bowen: Yeah.
Russell: Do you get nervous standing in front of a lot of people
and talking?
Bowen: Yeah.
Russell: Both of them?
Bowen: I’m about to do it in front of my entire class.
Russell: You’re giving a presentation tomorrow?
Bowen: Wednesday.
Russell: On Wednesday? Does it make you nervous?
Bowen: Yeah.
Russell: What makes you more nervous, talking in front of a
class of a whole bunch of people, or just talking one on one with
somebody?
Bowen: Probably the whole class.
Russell: The whole class does? Interesting. See for me, I was
just telling them, when I’m onstage with a whole bunch of people I
feel comfortable, but then one on one I get really nervous.
Bowen: if it’s one on one I guess you do kind of get nervous. I
mean, it was kind of hard for me to do this because one on one is
kind of hard because if you mess up they’ll recognize it. Except if
it’s a lot of people, they don’t yell it out.
Russell: Anyway, I just wanted to share with you guys tonight, I
don’t think this is something anyone is going to learn much from,
other than hopefully give the introverts out there some hope that
they can do this.
And people that are extroverted, help them understand their
super powers. A lot of those guys are going to be a lot better one
on one and a lot of introverts just seem like….it’s funny, because
it’s not just me either. I was talking to Frank Kern and he’s like,
“I love doing big events, but it scares me to talk to people
afterward.” He’s super introverted. I think a lot of people in
these kinds of positions are.
So it’s neat because it’s something that introverts can thrive
in, in mass situation, but then they’re…even within there they can
still have success. Hopefully that helps some of you guys who may
get nervous or may think, “I can’t do this, I can’t do this. I’m
not like Russell.” I get people all the time, “I’m not like you
Russell. I can’t stand up in front of people and just talk for
hours.” I’m like, “Dude, but you can talk to someone face to face,
I can’t do that. It scares the crap out of me.” I mean, that’s a
bad word here, in this family. It scares the..something else out of
me. That’s the worse swear word you’re going to hear from
Russell.
Bowen: Crud maybe.
Russell: Crud? It scares the crud out of me. Yeah, that’s way
better. Good job. Anyway, I hope that helps those introverts
out here to understand how it is that you can still succeed in an
extroverts world. In doing this stuff, the Expert Secrets stuff,
putting your voice out there, putting your message out there.
Because when all is said and done, the only thing that really
matters is the impact you have on people’s lives.
So do it, it’s worth it. At first you’re not going to be very
good, but if you get consistent with it, you get better and better
and better. I think I told you guys, Steven Larsen told me, because
I started this podcast back before I knew how to see if anybody was
listening to it, so I think for four or five years I didn’t have it
hooked to any stat system. And I’m glad I didn’t know because I
just kept doing it and doing it. And Steven Larsen said to me one
time, “Yeah, the first 45-46 episodes weren’t very good. After that
it started getting really, really good though.”
But that’s how it kind of works. It’s all about you guys getting
out there and sharing, sharing, and sharing and eventually you’ll
get comfortable with your voice. I just watched Alex Charfin, he
launched his Momentum podcast after the Pirates Cove mastermind
this year, and he’s passed like 80 thousand downloads, which is
awesome. And what he just posted on Facebook about it was just,
because he thought about doing a podcast forever and I was the one
that was like, “Dude, just do it. You’d be awesome at it. Just jump
off the cliff.” And he said that by doing it, it was really cool.
He’s like, “I found my voice. People started finding me. Other
people referred people and my audience grew. I have people
listening to my voice every single day and it’s just like such a
good thing.”
But again, it’s all about just doing it. And the more you do it,
the better, the more your message will get clear, the better you’ll
find your voice, the more comfortable you’ll feel. The nicest thing
about these mass media things that we have, podcasts and videos,
webinars, things like that, is that even if you’re introverted you
can still do this because you don’t have to talk face to face to
anybody. You can do group selling, group everything and it’s
awesome.
So there you go, that’s all I got. I’m going to go get this kid
to bed, get his homework done so I can go to bed because I am so
tired. Appreciate you all, talk to you soon. Bye.
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