Let’s dive into a preview of what you can expect from this year’s Funnel Hacking LIVE event with Kristine Mirelle, Tim Shields, and Ruth Soukup. Each of these experts brings a unique perspective on driving traffic, creating engaging content, and mastering course creation. You don't want to miss their insights, especially if you're looking to take your marketing strategies to the next level.

Kristine Mirelle, known for her hilarious ads, shares her journey from being a musician living in a garage to becoming a successful marketer without an internet connection. Her simple, low-budget, yet highly effective ads have driven significant traffic and lowered ad costs. Kristine will reveal her secrets to creating viral, humorous content that not only grabs attention but also dramatically reduces advertising expenses.

Tim Shields, who skyrocketed from 50,000 to 2 million Instagram followers in just six months, will discuss his Instagram formula. He'll explain the strategies he used to surpass accounts with much larger followings, including my own! Tim's session is a must-attend for anyone looking to grow their social media presence quickly and effectively.

Ruth Soukup, a long-time community member and author, will delve into planting your flag with course creation. Whether you're new to growing online or looking to enhance your existing business, Ruth's expertise will provide you with actionable steps to develop and market the courses your future customers are asking for today!

Key Highlights:​

Tune in to get a taste of what’s to come at Funnel Hacking LIVE and gain valuable tips you can implement right away. And remember, you can now get your ticket for Funnel Hacking LIVE with $0 down and decide if it's worth it after attending. Don't miss out on this opportunity!

We all have what it takes to be successful in our online businesses. What we need more of is tenacity, sticking with it, a vision, and the motivation to just go for it and put all your fears aside. And that's what I got when I went to Funnel Hacking Live, it just gave me the vision and I saw, from all the lectures and presentations from everybody else who had a million different niches, I saw it's possible and I can do it, too. And I got these techniques that I could use, and more importantly, I got the motivation and the belief in my heart of hearts, "I can do this."

Russell Brunson:
What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Show. Today we got another really fun Funnel Hacking Live preview show for you guys, which has been fun, because I feel like it's almost like a mini Funnel Hacking Live through the podcast. You guys have given some really good feedback, because each speaker is coming in and they're dropping some gold and some bombs to get you excited. Some really good stuff, and then they're like, "By the way, come to Funnel Hacking Live."

So I got three more speakers, these ones are all... Well, two of them are talking about different ways to get a lot of traffic into your funnels through social media, and one of them is more course-based. I'll talk about those here in a second, introduce them. But if you don't have your tickets yet to Funnel Hacking Live, I don't know if you heard yet, but we changed the offer. Thought it'd be a lot of fun to shift things around, and so right now, you can actually get a ticket to Funnel Hacking Live for free.

Funnel Hacking Live International is happening, it's virtual, but if you go to funnelhackinglive.com, you can sign up. And the tickets still cost money, but you can sign up for free, attend the entire four-day event, and then, after, let me know if it's worth. If it's worth it, we'll bill your credit card. If you're like, "Nah, that was lame, Russell," then we won't bill you, but you can try before you buy. It's like going to a restaurant and me, as the waiter, comes and I serve you an entire dinner that I slaved away and spent millions of dollars creating for you. You could eat it, in the end, if you think it was worth the ticket price and you let me know, and you pay for it.

If you're like, "Nah, I'm good," then you don't pay anything. So this is an ears this bluff we want to create, because I want to make sure you guys have a chance to be at Funnel Hacking Live International here coming up very, very soon. Okay, so here's your guest speakers for today.

Number one is Kristine Mirelle. And Kristine spoken for Michael and I a few times in the past. She's one of my favorite people, she is the queen of hilarious ads. And so you may have seen her, but she makes ads that are very simple. She'll tell the story a little bit here, so I'm not going to ruin the surprise. But with her phone, very simple things. No high budget, no high anything, and these ads are crazy, how much traffic they get. But also just how much it lowers the ad cost, because when people... The funny ads get shared, they get viral, all sorts of stuff, so the ad cost drops dramatically, and it's powerful.

So she's going to talk about that a little bit, you're going to love that. Number two is Tim Shields. Tim is someone who he could talk about so many cool things I would love, but he wants to talk about his Instagram formula, mostly so he can make fun of me. I didn't know I was competing against him. He had a following of 50,000 people on Instagram, I had, I think, at the time, 1.3 million, and he was frustrated. And this is six months ago and he tried 1,000 things and, all of a sudden, he tried one thing that took off and he's been doing it consistently and he passed me. In six months, went from 50,000, he passed the 1.3 million, he got to 2 million people, and he's in the photography market. It's crazy to me, and he's killing me and he's crushing me.

And so he is going to talk a little about how he did that and he's going to go deep on it for Funnel Hacking Live, which is amazing. So if you want to go from 50,000 to 2 million followers on Instagram, definitely listen to what Tim's going to teach you. And last is Ruth Soukup, and Ruth is someone who's been in our community for a while, and she's awesome. She's written some really cool books you guys would love, but she's going to be teaching a lot more on courses. Obviously, so many of you guys come into our world and you either have a course, you want to create a course, you're trying to figure those things out, and so she's going to be coming, going deep on course creation. I think you guys going to love it as well. So those are our three guests you're going to hear from right now.

And so listen to the preview show, what they're going to be talking about, but also, again, each of them are going to give some tips and some hints that you can grab and start running with today. So I hope you enjoy this. And then, afterwards, go run over to Funnel Hacking Live and get your tickets. It's just $0 down and let me know if you like it afterwards, and if so, we'll bill your card. If not, you get the ticket for free. Thanks, you guys. Appreciate you all, and hope you enjoy this episode.

In the last decade, I went from being a startup entrepreneur to selling over $1 billion in my own products and services online. This show is going to show you how to start, grow, and scale a business online. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. What's up, everybody? How's it going? We're still in Mexico. I'm about to bring you guys our next speaker invites, but we're pumped, because Funnel Hacking Live is like 90-something days away and, so far, I've been slowly revealing who the speakers are with you guys. And one of our next speakers happens to be in Mexico with us right now at the Unlock the Secrets in Paradise Young Entrepreneur event.

And so we thought, while we're here, we should introduce you to her as well. And before I introduce you, though, last night, she was hanging out with my kids, singing, having a lot of fun. She's somebody who's awesome, love hanging out with her, love having her in our Funnel Hacking community, and just excited, because she's going to be speaking this year about how to get traffic into your funnels in some really fun, unique ways. So the person I'm going to introduce you guys right now is Kristine Mirelle. You're speaking about live hacking again this year.

Kristine Mirelle:
So, so, so... Thank you for asking me to do it again.

Russell Brunson:
Everyone... Yeah, you're my favorite people to ever hear speak of all time. We get tons of requests for you to come back.

Kristine Mirelle:
Man, that's so cool.

Russell Brunson:
Yeah, we were planning this out and we're talking about just different... Whenever we do Funnel Hacking Live, I'm always thinking about the storyline of what we're teaching, in the order we're teaching, and we got to traffic, and it's like, "Who'd be the best?" And everyone's like, "Can we have Kristine come back?"

"Yes, we should have her back," so I'm really excited. For those who don't know you yet, do you want to tell a little about your story and how you got into our whole world here?

Kristine Mirelle:
Yeah, yeah. So I was a full-time musician and then COVID happened and everything went to crap. I lost all my gigs, lost everything, I had a baby. I was about to have a baby, I was five months pregnant and I was living in a garage. And I've talked to you about the story, I held my first webinar in a garage after I had read one of your books. Expert Secrets was like... Changed everything for me. Held my first webinar, sold my first $1,000 course. I was like, "What is this thing? This is crazy." And I didn't even have to work and I was so scared about doing my first webinar, I didn't even do it live. I just recorded it and then played it and I watched everyone's just sitting there watching, "How are people going to respond? And then ended up moving to a farm with no WiFi, and that was the biggest thing.

It was almost like the biggest blessing, because it was like... I just read your one book, Expert Secrets, and that's always to everyone, I'm like... The power of what you share, if you just apply... Just apply one thing and it could change your life, because here's the one thing that I did. I didn't read all your books, I didn't do any of those things, it was just Expert Secrets. And living on this farm with no WiFi... WiFi was like 10 miles out of town, but I just started... I created this one video where my brother was sitting on a toilet and we were talking about my book, and it was because we had just redone my mom's bathroom. And I just called my brother yesterday, I'm like, "Hey, is the toilet still there? Because I was thinking we could do a comeback video."

Russell Brunson:
Part two.

Kristine Mirelle:
Yeah, part two.

Russell Brunson:
Part two.

Kristine Mirelle:
Yeah, exactly. So he just sits on this toilet, we're talking about, "Hey, are you sitting on a toilet right now?" Pretty much, "You could be building your business." And so I was teaching musicians how to promote their music, because that's what I knew how to do, I knew how to promote music. At the time, I toured around the world and done some cool stuff, and so I just created a book, like you said. You're like, "Teach the one thing that you know," and then I would wait until my mom got home every day and take her car and drive into town where there was WiFi. And I uploaded this one video and it just... Tens of millions of views.

Russell Brunson:
Was it a paid ad or was it a free ad at the time?

Kristine Mirelle:
That was a paid.

Russell Brunson:
Okay.

Kristine Mirelle:
It was a paid ad, because again, I didn't have any time, so I wasn't doing organic. I didn't have WiFi, so I couldn't be posting every day. I couldn't do any lives, I couldn't do anything. I was just selling these $19 books. And then, one day, my paid ads guy called me, he goes, "Hey, did you know that you qualify for this thing? It's called a Too Comical Award. You did $1 million." And I'm like, "What?" And he's like, "Yeah, you get to walk on stage," and so the first Funnel Hacking Live, I went there and I just sat in the back and was like watching you, watching everybody else, and, "What is this world? This is crazy." And then, yeah, just from $19 books and then, yeah, completely changed my life.

Russell Brunson:
That's a lot of $19 books. Did you have upsells and downsells at all?

Kristine Mirelle:
The other upsells were other $19 books, so yeah.

Russell Brunson:
It wasn't like a high ticket-

Kristine Mirelle:
No, it wasn't any high ticket, it was just $19 books and then I finally... I was actually... I had met Perry Belcher and I remember showing him my funnel, he's like, "This isn't a funnel. This ain't a funnel." He was like... I love his accent. And he's like, "All you have is a book," because there wasn't any... But I was using ClickFunnels, but I didn't have any other...

Russell Brunson:
…any upsells or anything...

Kristine Mirelle:
He's like, "You got to add other steps." This is such a bad impression of Perry. Sorry, Perry.

Russell Brunson:
Sounds like him.

Kristine Mirelle:
I know, I know. So then I added the other upsells and then I understood the concept of, "Okay, so you add other books," and then I added a little mini course at the end for 47 bucks, but it was all really low-price stuff, and it worked for me and my lifestyle, because again, I couldn't be doing webinars or masterminds or coaching programs, or anything. I just needed something to be delivered, and that's it. I couldn't do anything else. And so it was just such a blessing. I was like, "Thank you, Russell Brunson. Thank you so much."

Russell Brunson:
That's so awesome. And so it started with these funny ads and then what's been fun in our world, our community, everyone knows you for making these funny ads. And I think the reason why I'm excited for you speak in Funnel Hacking Live is, right now... As everyone knows, ad costs have been going up over the years, but it's getting worse and worse. And right now, we're moving into an election cycle, which, if this is your first election cycle, ad costs will go crazy, because all of a sudden, there's Democrats and Republican dumping too much money into ads that don't make any logical sense, so ad costs go up. And what's interesting about the very first time we talked and you showed me your campaigns and stuff, it was like, because of the humor and people shared, the cost drops dramatically versus any other kind of thing. Do you want to talk about that hidden benefit of actually making funny ads?

Kristine Mirelle:
It's so funny, so one of the gentlemen that were here, he came up to me, he was like, "Look at what I'm doing," said, "I did exactly what you said," and we've talked about how... Let's say you're spending $500 a day and it's costing you however many dollars. Let's say it costs you $10 a purchase. What I'll find is, if I get a really good ad or it's costing $50 a purchase... Whatever that looks like. When I post something funny, it's always the humor, something really fun, something really... Grabs people's attention. The cost to acquire that customer can cut in a half or even a third of what that usually costs, and it'll immediately... If I'm spending $1,000, instead of making 1500, suddenly it's doing 2000 or 2,500, and I'm not spending more. I'm not doing anything different, I'm not adding any new audiences, I just put this new ad creative.

And this gentleman that I was talking to, he showed me. And he even made a video for me, he made a testimonial, and he was talking about how it directly split in half. He's like, "It's costing me half." He's like, "This is all I do now. I just do these funny ads, I don't do anything else." He's like, "I figured out this way." And he dresses up in little... He had a little mustache and he's like... He has a Spanish market, so this is for the Spanish market, and he's like, "I don't know how to start my business," and then the other guy's like, "Let me tell you how," and he plays both characters. So he did this funny little skit and he's like... He's doing 50,000 a month right now. He's like, "I'm doing $50,000 a month. Thanks, Kristine." Yeah, you owe me a commission. Give me a commission.

Russell Brunson:
I just want 20% of all that.

Kristine Mirelle:
Forever.

Russell Brunson:
So cool. Well, I'm excited, because obviously, you haven't created a presentation yet, but in the past, you've shown some of the funny ads, which is so fun for people to see and like, "Oh, my gosh, you literally used a toilet and a lawn mower." It's not like... The very first time I got a funny ad created, we hired the Harmon Brothers and it was like $500,000 to create the ad plus a percentage of ads. It was insane. And it made us our money back, luckily, over time, but it's like that's not what you're talking about. It's not like these huge budgets and script writers, all sorts of stuff. It's just finding the stuff around you and being creative and having some fun.

Kristine Mirelle:
And you know what the cool thing is? You can just do it with your cell phone. I always tell everyone, I'm like, "My ads that made me... The biggest ads, had tens of millions views were shot on an iPhone 6." It was so ancient. Might as well just been a Blackberry or a flip phone.

Russell Brunson:
Everyone's like, "iPhone 6," they're buying the iPhone 6. Maybe it's the model.

Kristine Mirelle:
Yeah, maybe it's the model. Exactly, maybe I need to get an iPhone 6. It's just an old phone. It wasn't really great quality, it really wasn't... And I almost feel like, social media, they love it when you just seem like a person, and so there's so much about just creating something fun, creating something where you seem human, and people are like, "I want... What is this?" Because all we're trying to do is get them to click, we're just trying to get them to click on it. But yeah, the funny ads, I couldn't... Yeah, the guy, when he told me, he's like, "It directly cut in half." I'm like, "Yeah, that's the same... That's exact, yeah, same stats that I get," so I was like...

Russell Brunson:
So if your ad costs double and you want to cut them back in half, you got to be a Funnel Hacking Live this year. Do not miss it. So what are you talking about Funnel Hacking Live this year then?

Kristine Mirelle:
Okay, so... Yes, I'm so excited. So now that I don't live on a farm with no WiFi anymore, I've moved to Las Vegas, people are still coming up to me like, "Are you still on the farm?" Not on the farm anymore. Yeah, not on the farm anymore. I do a lot of organic, so I'm going to do a lot of organic stuff. I'm going to share video content that I use to fill all my funnels, all of my challenges, all of my webinars. Just how to create video content. I know a lot of people get really scared about putting themselves on camera, so kind of just showing them easy ways. And now that we have AI, it will literally write all your scripts for you. So I'm going to show everybody how to make funny content and fun engaging content using AI. So even if you don't think you're funny, even if you don't think you're fun, even if you think your business is boring, we're going to be able to make this fun using AI.

So I'm really excited to share that, so I'm going to be showing all kinds of video content, both organic and paid. And now the stuff that I run, I show everybody how to run stuff as organic. And then, if it does well, then you run it as a paid ad. So then it's like, "Okay, cool," so it kind of works for everybody. Whether they're running ads or whether they're just starting out and they're just doing organic right now.

Russell Brunson:
Super cool. Okay, so I'm excited. Now, I also heard you may have a speaker bonus for everybody who has a ticket. So if they already have a ticket for Funnel Hacking Live, we'll put this in the members area. You go to funnelhackinglive.com, click and log in, it'll be inside there. But if you're not a member yet, what are they going to get if they get their tickets?

Kristine Mirelle:
Yeah. So I'm putting together a whole PDF of 16 different types of video content that, much of this, you can create in minutes to... And this is what I use to get email subscribers, how to get people into my funnel, my low-ticket funnels, my challenges to apply to my high-ticket stuff. Anything that someone is selling right now, you need video content for. Facebook released all kinds of data, it was almost like 70% of all sales are coming from video content now. So instead of trying to fight it, it's like, "Okay, here's just easy ways... Here's faceless ways where maybe you don't want to be talking on camera. Okay, here's some other ways that work for you." So I'm going to be sharing 16 different types of content, I'm going to be giving that away with samples and how to, all that kind of stuff.

Russell Brunson:
I want that, so I'm going to go sign up again and get another ticket. Anyway, that's amazing. I'm pumped for... Anyway, glad to have you here, glad to have you there as well. Anyone who's thinking about coming, should they come, you think?

Kristine Mirelle:
Okay, when I tell you guys that this completely changed my life in... Just the 180 of everything that my life was. Garage, too. I was just telling someone the other day that I got denied buying a home, because they didn't believe that I would buy a home smaller than the home I live in right now, so I'm buying another home and they're just saying, "You make too much money. We don't believe you actually want this home." I can't imagine that that would be my position. Most people are trying to... That's a problem. I had to send them a letter like, "No, I really... I just want a smaller home." And they're like, "No, you make too much money." That is so bizarre to me.

So from living in a garage to getting denied, because they make too much money, I didn't even know that was a thing. This happened. I didn't have lots of mentors, it was literally just Russell. I didn't read 100 books, it was literally Expert Secrets. So you have to come to this. If you have any dream of being an entrepreneur, of doing anything more than working a 9:00 to 5:00, serving the world, making money, giving value, all those types of things, you have to, have to be there.

Russell Brunson:
Amazing. All right, well, thank you. Appreciate you, Kristine.

Kristine Mirelle:
Thank you.

Russell Brunson:
Thank you, everybody. We'll see you guys in a couple months. What's up, everybody? This is Russell and I'm here today in a mastermind in paradise. We're here today for two reasons. Number one, to reveal one of our speakers I'm so excited to have speaking this year. And then, number two, is to make sure you get your tickets before they're sold out, so I want to make sure you get them at funnelhackinglive.com. So I'm going to introduce our speaker. So this is a speaker who... I've known you for a little while, but got to know you really well over just the last, man, probably year or so, which has been fun. And I'm always watching what people in my inner circle are doing and things like that, and now Funnel Hacking people. And so this guy, I started funnel hacking what he was doing and was blown away.

And then now I feel bad almost, because I'm boxing him half the time, asking him for ideas and feedback on my funnels, because he does so many cool things. He also happened to have recently destroyed me on Instagram, which may be what he's talking about this year's Funnel Hacking Live. But with that said, I'll introduce you to our next speaker, Mr. Tim Shields. Tim, how are you doing, man?

Tim Shields:
I am doing so well, it's such an honor to be here.

Russell Brunson:
I can't believe you're more socially popular than I am now. This hurts my feelings a little bit. So anyway, will you tell people a little bit about what you do and your core business?

Tim Shields:
Yeah. So the core business is that I teach people how to take beautiful landscape photos, like outdoor photos, photos of sunsets and mountains and rivers, with the camera that they already own. So I've created a very simple and easy-to-learn framework, a four-step system, and I sell digital courses using live webinars. And where we really cracked the code was to take live webinars and not just broadcast from home, like we usually do, but to actually go out in the field and broadcast a live webinar from a really remote place in the wilderness.

Russell Brunson:
What are some of the places you've done the big promotions?

Tim Shields:
So the very first one, we went live from the edge of the Grand Canyon, and we were able to say, as part of the promotional piece to our audience, "This is the world's first live webinar from the edge of the Grand Canyon." And when that was successful, we did the next one from the Rocky Mountains, then we did from the Sand Dunes of Death Valley National Park in California, we did Live from New York City, we did Live from Banff National Park, and the most recent one was live from the icy surface of a frozen lake in the Rocky Mountains.

Russell Brunson:
And I actually watched that one, which was really cool to see. So Tim gave me... After he was showing me how he was doing these big dramatic demonstrations all over the place, he gave me ideas like, "You should do a dramatic demonstration at Dan Kennedy's basement," which a couple months ago, you may have saw we did that. Went to Dan Kennedy's basement, it's not probably as cool as the glacier or the other things.

Tim Shields:
But it was cool.

Russell Brunson:
For marketing nerds, it was perfect for us.

Tim Shields:
Yeah, because the way that this works is that you want to pick a location that is really important in the eyes of your perfect customer. So for me, to pick from the edge of the Grand Canyon, that's really important in the eyes of landscape photographers, but if you were in finance and you were able to say, "Live from Wall Street," even though you're in a hotel room or an Airbnb that happens to be on Wall Street, that's an important place in the minds of a perfect customer in the finance niche. So you are able to go live from Dan Kennedy's basement, which is super important for us, funnel hackers.

Russell Brunson:
Yeah, we all want to see down in Dan's basement, which is really fun. Okay, so Funnel Hacking Live's coming up. Do you want to talk about what you're going to be talking about this year?

Tim Shields:
Yeah, so I'm going to be talking about the Instagram Fire Formula, and this is a really interesting thing where I have been super frustrated with my Instagram lack of growth. It was just stagnant and it just made me want to give up. It created a lot of negative thoughts inside myself where I was... I had a lot of false beliefs just because I had failed with Instagram growth over and over again, and I kind of had that feeling that I just don't have what it takes, "I'm too old, I'm not good-looking enough, my content's not interesting enough. I'm no spring chicken." So then I tried this new way, and I call it the Instagram Fire Formula, and I was able to rocket the success of my Instagram account from 50,000 followers, which took five years to get, up to what it is now, 2.1 million followers in just seven months.

So it's just being like, "Wow, did this really happen?" So I've created a system and an easy-to-follow series of steps, like a framework, that everyone's going to be able to follow, and I'm going to be teaching it to everyone who comes to Funnel Hacking live.

Russell Brunson:
It's cool, because it's not like some like, "Give me shoutouts," or doing active... Buying ads or any of that kind stuff, it's all just on the way you structure your content, how you post it to make it go viral, pretty much every time, it seems like all your videos... Your pictures do.

Tim Shields:
And I'm only posting five times a week. It's a reel, I go five times a week, and really, I should be doing seven days a week, but I just don't want to take the time to make all the content. So it's just five new reels a week and I'm filming the reels really quick, literally sitting in front of my computer and reading a script into a teleprompter and then we're putting some visuals onto it, but we're using this new trick that is just mind-boggling with how it gets the engagement and just gets people to type in comments and triggers the algorithm.

Russell Brunson:
He just did a presentation last night to the audience here for Unlock the Secrets, and people were going nuts. Even people in our Atlas Inner Circle group who have seen you talk about this just in our private meetings, were freaking out like, "There's new stuff. That makes more sense." You are getting better every time you're sharing it and pulling in the new pieces of it, but just blows my mind, because I look at what I've doing for the last decade for my Instagram and growing it and promotion, all kind of stuff, and I think I'm a little over a million. So you went from 50,000 to a million and then you lapped at me again in the last seven months.

Tim Shields:
Yeah, I used to look at your social media. I would look at your Instagram, I would look at mine. 50,000, it took five years to get to 50,000. It was stagnant for the past two years. I would look at yours, 1.3 million followers on Instagram, and it just made me almost feel sick. I just wanted to give up. And I calculated out that, if I could grow at 100 new followers a day, it would take me like 39 years to get up to your level. And then I started with this new formula after I reverse-engineered some human psychology and went back to first principles of what makes a human being tick.

What's the one question everyone wants to answer for themselves? And the question is, "Do I have what it takes?" So all my content, I'm poking that bear, poking everybody right in the heart with the, "Do I have what it takes?" Question. And it's just provoking people into watching the whole reel and leaving comments, liking, saving, and the algorithm loves it. We went from 50K to 2.1 million in seven months. It's been amazing.

Russell Brunson:
And now I'm on the other side feeling depressed and frustrated.

Tim Shields:
You have what it takes.

Russell Brunson:
Anyway, I'm going to be making a concerted effort. My goal is, the next 90 days by Funnel Hacking Live, to catch up to you using your own strategy, so there's my commitment to myself.

Tim Shields:
It's on, it is on. Yeah, you give me a challenge, I'm there. Just like you, I'm competitive, too.

Russell Brunson:
You got to stop. How many a day are you adding? Do you know... A week, do you know what numbers and how many you're adding?

Tim Shields:
It depends which one is going viral at the time, but with our best reel, where we got 32 million views on it, it added 220,000 new followers just in one day alone. It was incredible.

Russell Brunson:
That's insane.

Tim Shields:
So when something goes viral, it really makes an impact on your account.

Russell Brunson:
Well, do you want to learn how to do that? Because I do and I want to beat you all to it. But anyway, I'm excited, Tim will be sharing this at this year's Fun Hacking Live, which is like 90 days away or three months away, whatever the exact day count is. And I'm pumped, man. Thank you for coming and be willing to share this. A lot of people have stuff like this that works, so they just hoard it to themselves, they don't want to-

Tim Shields:
Yeah, I'm giving it away for free. If you're watching this, no matter what your niche is, this is going to apply to your niche. You're going to be able to use it, it's super easy. It doesn't take any technical know-how, it's just a quick step-by-step system, you'll be able to modify this technique to your niche and grow your Instagram like crazy.

Russell Brunson:
And people don't understand, you're not in the how-to-make-money niche or anything, you're in landscape... It's not even like... It's like this photography and there's different niches, and you're like landscape photography, which is niche-

Tim Shields:
I'm a niche in a niche in a niche.

Russell Brunson:
Yeah.

Tim Shields:
Yeah.

Russell Brunson:
And still the two point whatever million followers now who obsess about everything you're putting out, which is crazy. Yeah, it doesn't matter what market you're in, the strategy is really, really cool. So all right, last question for you is, for someone who's either never been to Fun Hacking Live or on the fence sitting there, what would you tell someone who's-

Tim Shields:
Funnel Hacking Live changed my life. I went to Funnel Hacking Live for the first time in 2020 and I saw... I caught the vision. And, really, what we need. We all have what it takes to be successful in our online businesses. What we need more of is tenacity, sticking with it, a vision, and the motivation to just go for it and put all your fears aside. And that's what I got when I went to Funnel Hacking Live, it just gave me the vision and I saw, from all the lectures and presentations from everybody else who had a million different niches, I saw it's possible and I can do it, too. And I got these techniques that I could use, and more importantly, I got the motivation and the belief in my heart of hearts, "I can do this."

So when I saw people walking across the stage, getting their Two Comma Club award, I made a vow to myself, "I am going to be back and I'm going to get the Two Comma Club award. I want the Two Comma Club X award and I want to speak on this stage," and all three of those tick marks have been checked. So that's because I went to Funnel Hacking Live. I really encourage everyone who is sitting on the fence and who might be waffling, "Is this going to be worth my time?" Oh, my goodness, it's worth your time. You need to come.

Russell Brunson:
So cool. Well, thank you, man. I appreciate you and excited to share with our whole entire audience of the whole world. So with that said, you guys, I appreciate y'all for hanging out today. If you already have your tickets for Funnel Hacking live, congratulations. If you don't have it yet, now is the time. If you go to funnelhackinglive.com, you can go and register, get your tickets right now. But other than that, thank you guys so much for hanging out. Thank you, Tim. And we'll see you guys all in 90 days.

What's up, everybody? How are you guys all doing? All right, so the person who's going to be speaking, I'm excited. She actually spoke just today here at the Unlocked Secrets event for our audience to share a whole bunch of really cool information about creating courses and creating your message online and a whole bunch of other things. She's someone who's wrote some really, really good books. One of them, I'm obsessed with. I don't know if you know that or not, but anyway, she's amazing and I'm so excited to introduce you guys here today to my friend, Ruth Soukup. I'm so excited to have you here.

Ruth Soukup:
I'm so excited to be here.

Russell Brunson:
So for my audience who doesn't... I know a lot of people know who you are, obviously, but those who don't know, you want to tell a little about your backstory, just who you are and how you got here?

Ruth Soukup:
Yes, I've done so many things. I actually am like a serial entrepreneur. Like so many people, I have many different businesses. I started as a blogger way back in 2010 with a little blog called "Living While Spending Less," and that evolved into many different things. And so now what I do is I have two main companies. One is a health and weight loss company for women called Thinlicious, where I help women over 40 lose weight and get healthy, and the other one is my passion project where I teach people the behind the scenes of everything that I'm doing to build my other businesses. And that is a company called Elite Blog Academy, it's been around for a long time. It started helping bloggers and now it's more focused on other forms of content marketing and... Yeah, that's what I do.

Russell Brunson:
That's very cool. Are people still blogging nowadays? I have noticed a lot less of that, huh?

Ruth Soukup:
It's not so much blogging. I look at blogging as all forms of content, so if you are doing a podcast, you're blogging. If you're putting stuff on Instagram, you're blogging. It's really all the same thing. Content is content is content, just there's all sorts of different platforms where you can put it out.

Russell Brunson:
Very cool. So when did you launch... You got Thinlicious?

Ruth Soukup:
Yeah.

Russell Brunson:
When did you launch Thinlicious business and brand?

Ruth Soukup:
Two years ago.

Russell Brunson:
Okay.

Ruth Soukup:
Yes.

Russell Brunson:
Very cool. And then how long have you been doing the other business, showing behind the scenes of your businesses?

Ruth Soukup:
Since 2014.

Russell Brunson:
2014, okay.

Ruth Soukup:
Yeah.

Russell Brunson:
Which is what, a decade?

Ruth Soukup:
It's a long time.

Russell Brunson:
Long time.

Ruth Soukup:
Yeah, long time.

Russell Brunson:
Very long.

Ruth Soukup:
I'm like an OG.

Russell Brunson:
I'm curious, what made you want to go start the other business? Just show what your proof of what you're doing?

Ruth Soukup:
A little bit of that. Mostly, it was based on... You got to stick with what you're passionate, right? And through COVID, and through... all this time that I was building my business, honestly, over the last... How many years have I been doing it? 14 years. I think I was fighting this secret battle behind the scenes with my weight, where I kept gaining weight and kept gaining weight and kept gaining weight, and it was really affecting my confidence and I didn't really know what to do with it. Like so many women, I tried diet after diet after diet after diet after diet, and I couldn't figure it out. And finally, I had this moment where I realized, "Why don't I do for myself..." Because I was always looking to somebody else for the solution. I'm like, "That's not what I talk about. I help women get organized and I help... I do all these other things, mindset."

But I never really thought, "I should do what I am good at," which is, basically, diving into the research, figuring out a system, and then applying it to my life, which I'm really, really good at, and do that with my health. And so I started doing all the research and figuring out, "What is working? What is not working? Why do people gain weight? Why don't they gain weight? Why do diets not work?" And I started applying that to my own life and I went on this journey and ended up losing over 40 pounds and have kept it off for years now.

And then, because I'm such a public person and have this huge audience already, I had so many of my readers and followers be like, "What are you doing? You look amazing." It was crazy. And so I was like, "I need another business like I need a hole in my head," but I couldn't... Because I'm so passionate about it and I really truly care so much and it has changed my life, and so I wanted to help people change their life in that way. So I started this company, it was crazy. My husband was like, "Do not do this," but I did it anyways. And it's been two years and it's not the easiest thing, to start a company from scratch. You just learned that, you just did that, right? It's hard, you forget how hard it is to start over, but it's been amazing. So yeah, we're two years in.

Russell Brunson:
Most of your audience there came from your other businesses or is this also a new venture of new audiences? Stuff like that.

Ruth Soukup:
We had a bunch of people that came over, obviously. I mean, that's the beauty of being the attractive character for your business, people attach themselves to you, and so they like you and they come over to whatever the next thing is. So obviously, that was a good boost for the beginning. And we had this out the gate, right? It was amazing, crazy sales the first month, and then boom, right? Then everybody... All your people that love you are done, and then you have to find new customers. So that's been a learning experience. So I would say now we've definitely built up a new following and new audience.

Russell Brunson:
That's cool. I love it, because I think a lot of people who talk about business online, they talk about something they did a decade ago or 20, you know what I mean? And the fact that you're still actively in the game with the new business, new things, stuff you're teaching isn't old. It's like, "This is what's working today in the market, based on what's-"

Ruth Soukup:
Yes. And that's what's been so fun about my Powerhouse program, which is what I do for Elite Blog Academy. That has continued to evolve, that business has been around, but the program is actually brand new, and I'm sharing everything that I'm doing in real time, "This is what I'm doing, this is how I built this business, this is how to do it in real time, the structure that I'm setting up," and so that's been really fun to do, too. Yeah.

Russell Brunson:
Awesome, okay. So this year's Funnel Hacking Live, you're going to be coming and speaking, and want to tell everybody what you're going to be talking about this year?

Ruth Soukup:
Yes. I am going to be talking about how to create an info product from what you know. Yes? Is that right? Did I get it right?

Russell Brunson:
You nailed it.

Ruth Soukup:
Yes. I think I switched those around or something. How to take what you know and turn it into an info product. That's right.

Russell Brunson:
Very cool.

Ruth Soukup:
Yes.

Russell Brunson:
Very cool. And you just gave a presentation here for our audience, and people loved it. They were going crazy, I got so many good comments. We added a big group picture out there everyone was talking about. So what do you think... For someone who's always wounded up, but hasn't done it yet, what is the biggest thing that keeps people back from actually taking the leap of faith and creating something?

Ruth Soukup:
Here's what I see from my students, right? Is that so many people come to me, and you probably see this a lot, too, is that they want to create something, they have this idea, but they feel like everything needs to be all lined up, right? And then they start hearing things about like, "I have to do a funnel and I have to market and I have to know all my sales plan and I need to do all these things," and the reality is that you actually first just need to put something out there into the world and you have to start imperfectly. And I think that's... If you can just get into that mentality, that you have infinite opportunity to improve what you start, but until you put something out there to the world, and there's so many opportunities for that now, to get something out there and see if it resonates really quickly, that you need to get it out there, so that you can see, "People do respond to this. This one little thing is what people respond to," because you don't know what it's going to be.

And until you know what it's going to be, don't create your whole business plan, because you might have to change it anyways. That's what I even learned that just recently with Thinlicious. It was the same thing. We thought it was one thing, right? And I'm like, "I've done this for so long, I know exactly what I'm doing." And we put it out there and we had this messaging, and of course, it worked with my people, because they already know me and like me and trust me. But then as soon as we got into new people, they're like, "I'm not interested in that. Who are you?" And we had to go, "We need to tweak it, we need to change our messaging," and so it's been a learning process for that.

Russell Brunson:
So interesting, I have the exact same experience. Every time I try to create something in a vacuum and I'm like, "Here it is, world," and the again, my faithful fans are like... They buy it and everyone else is just like... And so I'm the similar... Now, at least... I'm not perfect yet, but I try to put out through podcasts and social... Putting out a lot of things, but I'm paying attention. What do people actually respond to where they don't? And then, based on that, I say, "Okay, that hit a nerve, I'm going to go deeper." If I do a podcast and I hear nothing, then I'm like, "No one cares," but if I get 30 people who message me like, "Dude, that was amazing." I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to do another thing on that topic and see if that was a one-time thing," and I play with that for a little while and eventually, "Okay, that's what they want."

Ruth Soukup:
Exactly. And sometimes it's not what you think. In fact, most of the times, it's not what you think. And if you have this whole thing in your head that you are planning out, you're actually shooting yourself in the foot, because then you haven't figured out what actually resonates with your people. I'm always surprised, even now.

Russell Brunson:
I'm the same way, interesting. So cool. So I'm excited for you to come and share that with everybody, I think... Obviously, I'm the biggest believer in getting people to take what they know, what they do, and turn it into a business. I think it's the most fulfilling business. I love e-commerce, all the other ones, they're great, but there's something about when you take something out of your own head and then you give it to somebody and you watch their life change, how it affects that person, that also affects you realizing like, "Wow, there's purpose to my trials or my frustrations," or all those things. And it's my favorite kind of business, so I'm pumped to have you come showing everybody that stuff. So thank you for doing it. Any last words for anyone who's thinking that they should come to Funnel Hacking Live or not?

Ruth Soukup:
Well, we do have a gift.

Russell Brunson:
Yes, so tell us about the gift. What bribe do you have for our people to get them to come?

Ruth Soukup:
We do have a bribe. Yes, we have a gift. So our EVA Powerhouse program that we launched last year has a new... What should we call it? A level-one continuity product that we are launching in September, and everyone who joins or comes to Funnel Hacking Live is going to get a free month in this program. And it is called IG Power Play and it is focused specifically on Instagram, but also on helping you figure out exactly what your message is, because I think that is such an important thing if you're going to start putting content out there into the world, and especially on short-form video. I prefer Instagram, which is why we're focused on Instagram, but we give you a weekly content plan and telling you exactly what to do every week and how to post it and the concepts of what you should be posting and why you should be posting, but we also give you a framework to follow on why we're posting certain reels every single week.

We've seen amazing growth in Instagram and just amazing results in Instagram, and so we're really excited to see that. And we're seeing that for our students, too. So now we have this program that's called IG Power Play, and they get a free month. And it hasn't even launched yet. It doesn't launch until September. You get early access, you will get early access before anybody else.

Russell Brunson:
That's awesome, thank you. Okay, there you go, guys. There's a speaker bonus. Make sure you get your tickets right now. Again, tickets are at funnelhackinglive.com. If you already have a ticket, we'll put our speaker bonus in the members area, so you go to funnelhackinglive.com, click on the members login link at the very top, and then log in, it'll be inside of there. If you're not a member yet, now is the time. Other than that, we'll see you guys in 80 days, right? In 80 days at Funnel Hacking Live International, we'll stream this around the world and excited to be hanging out as a collective group of funnel hackers all hanging out. So thank you, Ruth, for being here and for presenting, and excited to share with our whole world.

Ruth Soukup:
Yeah, we'll see you there.

Russell Brunson:
All right, everyone. I hope you guys enjoyed that episode of the podcast. I'm really enjoying these preview shows, hope you guys are as well. Don't forget, we have a special happening now at funnelhackinglive.com, where you can go and you can get your ticket, go through the entire experience, and then when the event's over, then you decide if it's worth it. It's like going to a restaurant. Sitting down, eating all the food, and the waiter at the end ask you if it was worth it. And if you don't think it's worth it, you don't pay anything, you leave for free. But if you're like, "That was amazing," then you can pay for the ticket afterwards. And so this way, I'm putting my money where my mouth is, I'm going to prove to you that this event will change your life, and this is the only time and will be the only time we'll ever do this.

So if you want to come to Funnel Hacking Live and experience it for free right now, go to funnelhackinglive.com, go to the order form, you have to put your credit card in, but we won't bill you anything. Experience the entire three and a half day event and when it's over, let us know if it's worth it, and if it is, which it will be, we'll bill you under 200 bucks. If it's not, that's cool, too. Let us know, we won't bill you anything. No harm, no foul. I want to make sure that you guys enjoy the extent as an experience that changes your life. So again, thank you so much. I appreciate you guys all for listening to the podcast. I cannot wait to see you this year at Funnel Hacking Live.