At my last Inner Circle in Boise, Luke Jaster asked how we keep a through-line in our goals and get things done at such a high level without sacrificing family and values. First I’ll share how I organize my process so things get done in the business, and then we’ll talk about how I organize my family time. And stay for the end, where I give one of the keys to how we organize and ensure our launches are always on time!
But there are a couple things that have helped me a lot. They came from conversations in rooms like this that were really big for me. So the very first one is Alex Mandossian, when I first got started, it was in a room like this and he said something that hit me.
He said, "There's two types of people in this world. There's people who are really good starting things and people good at finishing," he's like, "You got to figure out which one you are and surround yourself with the other."
Russell Brunson:
What's up everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. You are in luck. Today we're doing another Q&A episode, which should be a lot of fun. Again, these are Q&As that happened at my Inner Circle event. So these are my Inner Circle members asking questions to me on stage, and you guys have a chance to kind of listen in a fly on the wall. And I hope you enjoy them. These are fun episodes. People have really been enjoying them so far. So the next question is from Luke Jaster. And the question was about strategy management and how do you do everything? How do you make your family and your business and more happen all at the same time?
And so this is a question people ask me a lot, it's just like, "Russell, you seem like you do so many things. How do you do them all? How do you do all at such a high level without sacrificing your family and your values?" There are a lot of people who are producing and doing a lot of stuff, but then they lose their family along the way and things like that. And so first off, I want to say that I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I'm struggling with this daily on a constant. So I try to lay out some of the things that I've done that have helped me and hopefully they'll help you as well. So with that said, hope you enjoy this episode here on the Marketing Secrets Podcast. Q&A time.
Luke Jaster:
Hey, Russell, Luke here. First day of Inner Circle. Thank you so much. It's been-
Russell Brunson:
Yay. Welcome.
Luke Jaster:
My question for you is you've got a family, obviously wife, so many kids, you wrestle, you got 15 businesses, how do you make all that happen? I feel like anything I try to do just moves like molasses. It just takes weeks or months. Is it hacks that you have? Is it a underlying philosophy? Are there two of you? What are you not telling us?
Russell Brunson:
That's awesome. Do you have a team or what's your-
Luke Jaster:
Yes.
Russell Brunson:
Okay.
Luke Jaster:
We do have a team. I think we lack vision. Today I realized that we're doing basically everything wrong. I don't even know how I got a Two Comma Club award. I don't know how you let me into this Inner Circle. I feel like this big, but my brain is like this now, so I'm all over the place. I think that, yeah, direction, stuff like that, we're looking for some foundational stuff. I think.
Russell Brunson:
Yeah.
Luke Jaster:
Because we get stuff done, but it just seems to take so long from one funnel hacking to another funnel hacking and I'm like, "Oh yeah, we heard that last year and it was so great and I wanted to do it. And we started down that road. And what happened to that?"
Russell Brunson:
Where'd that go?
Luke Jaster:
How to just that through line from start to finish and you seem to just be dropping things in a good way, like content, programs, businesses, your family seems fantastic. It's all in order and I'm just trying to figure out what you're doing so different. Are you not sleeping at night?
Russell Brunson:
I haven't slept in a decade.
Luke Jaster:
That's what I would assume, but I think it's something else.
Russell Brunson:
That's a good question. And I'll be first to admit, and you ask my team, I am not perfect. I'm a nightmare most of the times. You come in my office, I'm covered in six foot of old books every day. And it's awesome I love it. But it's kind of crazy, right? But there are a couple things that have helped me a lot. They came from conversations in rooms like this that were really big for me. So the very first one is Alex Mandossian, when I first got started, it was in a room like this and he said something that hit me.
He said, "There's two types of people in this world. There's people who are really good starting things and people good at finishing," he's like, "You got to figure out which one you are and surround yourself with the other." And so I look at me, I'm the greatest starter in the history of all entrepreneurship. I can start things like crazy, but I'm the worst finisher. You can ask anybody on my team. Ben, am I a good finisher? See, they're like, "Ben, help me. I started this thing, now what do I do?" And Jenny and Brent and all the people. So it's understanding who you are and then surrounding yourself with the other ones. That's the big part of it, right?
Luke Jaster:
Okay.
Russell Brunson:
Number two then is for me is understanding the hierarchy of, it's not the right word because it's not hierarchy because all of them are equally important, but they're just different. And so there's three ways that people's brains work. One is strategic. So there's strategy is number one. And then there's people that are really good at management. And number three then is doing the work, those who are good at doing it. And so a lot of people, and I struggled with this for a long time, but what I realized is you sort of figure where's your superpower actually at? So one of my biggest things I always slip back into is I try to manage people. And so I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to manage it." I try putting these together, try to putting together systems. I'm the worst at this ever. Every time I try, things fall apart. And I think it's done, it's like chaos. It's a nightmare.
Even Secrets to Success, I was managing the whole process. Because I actually love managing the funnel build parts. I'm in there, I'm getting my hand, I feel the whole thing.
And then the day before we launched, or two days before we launch, Kevin, who's really good management came into the office, "So who's running this after launch it to the world? I was like, "What are you talking about?" He's like, "Well, after you sell stuff, who's going to take care of the people?" I was like, "Oh, well there's a membership site for that." He's like, "Well, who's going to do customer support?" I was like, "Oh, I didn't think about that." And this is the problem I get into. Right? And then Jenny volunteered, Jenny's like, "I will come and be the integrator and manager." And Jenny's come in, who has been my assistant forever, and now she's transitioning to literally be the integrator operator of this business coming at this level. And then now she... Yeah, give Jenny a round of applause.
Now, when Jenny and I sit by each other and she shows me what she's doing here, it stresses me out to the point where I want to kill myself. It's literally 5,000 spreadsheets and things. The first three days of the launch, she sat in this room and was doing a bunch of stuff and she came out, "I wrote a 70-page SOP." I'm like, "What does that even stand for?" I didn't even know. And I was like, "Why would you do that? What's the purpose?" And I don't understand it because my brain does not work here. And so a lot of times what happens, at least for me, I get struggles, I come from here to here. Where I'm really good at strategy, and so when I'm in my best is when I'm sitting down, here's the strategy of the thing and I'm able to explain it to somebody at this level, they can catch it, ask a bunch of questions, and then they go organize a plan and give it to the people who are doers.
Now, I also happen to be a doer in my company because there's things I love to do. I love to build funnels. And so when I come here at strategy and I'm the boss and I tell whoever's the integrator manager, here's the plan, and then they take it, I can step away from it and it's happening. Right now, I've got a bunch of people that work under me that help me do these different things. Today, in the back, I'm messaging Morag, who's in the UK who's one of our, she's amazing. I send her 30 different things and I forget about it. Then tomorrow, I'll come in and she'll send me a list and most of them will be done. And she's set up the management process and then she's getting the people who are doers. And again, sometimes I am the person, sometimes I'm the funnel builder, sometimes I'm a copywriter, sometimes I'm the creative who's got to be on camera. So I might have different roles, but I'm never in this role because this one slows everything now and then everything falls apart. And so that's kind of how I look at things.
Again, this is like the starter and then these are all the finishers. And so in some situations, when I come in strategy for Secrets to Success, Jenny works for me, but then when she comes back to me like, "Russell, I need you to do these three trainings," I work for her. Now I'm an employee of her. So I have that kind of division where this is when she works for me, this is when I work for her type thing. And so all of our departments are similar. On social media, I'll be part of the strategy. Here's the strategy we want to do, give it to social media team. And they come back to me and they're like, "Okay, Russell, here's the three videos we need," because now I work for them. And so it's kind of figuring out where your roles are and really figuring those things out because every time I get the point where I get overwhelmed and things start falling apart is when I'm not in the right lane and I don't have the right people doing things.
Or the other problem we had a lot with ClickFunnels specifically is we found the people who were the best doers. "You are so good at getting stuff done, we're going to ascend you up to management," and we move them up to management and they suck at managing people.
And this person was a rockstar here, gets a raise because they go up to management and then we lose them because they're being horrible. I can't tell you how many times I made that mistake. That's what I'm saying. This isn't hierarchy. This isn't like you are better here, as you ascend up, you get better and better. It's just different ways our brains work. Some people really good at doing the task flawlessly, some people really good at managing the process and some are really good at just the strategy. So it's understanding where you are and the other people and helping them all know their roles and their lanes. Where you're like, "Look, you're just allowed to do it. Don't ever manage people again," or just managing the people that are doers. Does that kind of help?
Luke Jaster:
It makes sense. Is there anything that you could speak to in terms of personal life?
Russell Brunson:
Yeah.
Luke Jaster:
In terms of staying in shape and making sure you're getting nutrition, taking care of your family, is that the same framework or something else?
Russell Brunson:
Yeah, this is me. This is my wife, I'm just chiding. This is my kid, I'm just kidding. No, for me, that's a lot more like time blocking. I think one of the things I'm really good at, I remember Alex Charfen, he was one of our Two Comma Club X coaches four or five years ago, and he had everybody do a time study exercise. Have you done that? Where you get a time and everyone as you're doing stuff, you write down, "Oh, I spent 15 minutes on Instagram. Oh, I spent 12 minutes doing email," and you time everything down for a week. It's a horrible process. By the time you're done, you realize you get nothing done in a normal day. I think for me, I'm the opposite. I'm pretty good at blocking out time and then just cranking on stuff and getting things done. And I try to compartmentalize things very strictly.
So for me, I know that if you look at a daily schedule, it's like right here, this is my mornings, so I'm going to get up at 6:00, 5:00 if it's something that's really important. And from here to about 7:00, this is my time where I'm most creative. I'm going to be writing because that's where I got to write or things where I'm not, and that's that time. And then my kids wake up at 7:00, and this is my time with my kids where I'm driving them to school, I'm hanging out,
I'm having breakfast with them, I'm trying to engage with them. The teenagers, I'm trying to get them to acknowledge I exist. But this is the kid time. And then at the end of this, one of my sons, I drive to school and then I go from there directly to the office. And then this is, I have about a 45 minute, which this is my time with God, scripture study, praying, trying to get straight in the world.
And then at 9:05, I got my first management meeting, which is I jump on a phone, we have a five-minute meeting with everybody on our core management team basically saying, "Here's what we're doing today." So that starts at 9:05, by 9:10 we're done. And then from 9:10 till, depending on the day, this is where I'm actually working. So if we're doing YouTube scripts or VSLs, whatever, I'm writing, I'm strategy, I'm outlining, I'm trying new stuff. But this is all in a separate office from where my people are at. Literally a separate office. And I got this from Danny Kennedy. When I was at Danny Kennedy's house, a couple of you guys have gone to Danny Kennedy's house recently. Anyone here been in Kennedy's house? I saw three or four Inner Circle members who were there.
Anyway, so you're at Danny Kennedy's house, you go in his basement, he does not have internet access in the entire thing. He's got a fax machine and that's it. And a whole bunch of stacks of boxes and books. And the guy's written 60 books. And I was like, "How do you write so much without having internet?" And he was like, "How do you get anything done with the internet?" He was like, "Don't you ever feel like you're sitting in a strip club the whole day?" I'm like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "You can get porn everywhere. How do you get work done?" I was like, "I don't know, Dan. I guess I don't look at porn, that makes it easier. So that helps." But I learned he's not connecting to the world, he's just writing. When he does connect, then he'll go and he has a phone call set up. But when he's working, there's no connection. So when I'm in this role over here, there's almost no connection. If I need something, I can get online, but for the most part, I'm away.
And this is me writing and stuff like that. I'm not doing meetings, I'm not doing messaging. I'm just like this is my time to try to get stuff done. And then when I'm done and this part ends usually about 11:00, 11:30 or so, then I go over to the other office. I physically leave this office that's just mine, go back in and then everyone's there. And that's when I'm like, "Okay, what do you guys need?" And I'm giving feedback. I'm giving ideas, we're working together. I'm trying to drop strategy. I'm trying to do the work they're needing me to do. And that's kind of the rest of the day. And then when I leave, then I go home. And when I get home, I leave Russell Brunson in the car and I come in as Russell, dad. And then from whatever it is, 5:3030 or 6:00, till the end of the night, it's then my kids until 9:00, we put them all to bed, 9:00 until I've passed out, my wife and I. And that's sacred time. It's their time, not the business's time.
And so that's kind of how I structure my day. And it gives me kid time, wife time, God time, work time, team time. And I try to stick that as close as I can. And I'm not perfect at it. Sometimes I'll miss things for a week or two at a time. I reset. I try to reset back to this. Because it gets all the things I'm trying to get done into a day. And then just when I'm in that time, I maximize it. I'm not sitting around dorking around on things. I'm actually doing the work as quick as I can.
Luke Jaster:
Okay.
Russell Brunson:
Does that help?
Luke Jaster:
Yeah, that's super helpful. Thank you so much.
Russell Brunson:
Yeah. But a big part of it, again, having the team around you is the key. Because anytime I'm trying to do all the things, it just all crumbles and it's just got to have a lot of really, really good people.
Luke Jaster:
Yeah. It just feels like it's small steps almost every day. And I'm wondering if you're just, "All right, I need to finish this one big step today," or is it just incremental?
Russell Brunson:
It depends. Different seasons, different times. Sometimes I'm working towards something, like I'm writing a book or I'm doing a thing that's there're smaller incremental steps. Other times, it's FACL is coming up or Inner Circle or something like a big thing. And I set deadlines that are very strict and as we get closer and closer deadline, I will invest way more time into the thing. And I don't shift deadlines. You can ask my team, if we're like, "This is the date we're launching. We launch whether we're ready or not because it has to happen," which causes problems. Initially, support hates me, but then we always figure it out eventually. And I'm really strict on deadlines though. We set a deadline, we don't deviate from that.
Luke Jaster:
Okay.
Russell Brunson:
Otherwise, it keeps moving if you have it there.
Luke Jaster:
Yeah, my experience. Thank you.
Russell Brunson:
Yeah.
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