This is not your traditional marketing episode, but hopefully it helps you to understand your role in the plan. On this podcast Preacher Russell talks about the journey that leads you to where God (or whatever you believe in) wants you to be. Here are some of the insightful things in this episode:

-- Find out why Russell feels that the struggles from his past have made it possible for his present.

-- Hear why Russell believes his journey is so important for what God ultimately has in store for him.

-- And find out why when he looks back on the most difficult and painful time in his life, he is grateful for the journey.

Listen now to see why your journey is so important for where you end up.

It’s not something I understood for a long time, but it’s something I see so clearly now. I’m a big believer that God, he calls us to do things and then he qualifies us by often times taking us through a long, horrible road, for us to learn the skills we need to be able to accomplish the thing that he wants us to do. It’s interesting.

-- ClickFunnels: Everything you need to start market, sell, and deliver your products and services online (without having to hire or rely on a tech team!)

-- DotComSecrets: Get a free copy of the "Underground Playbook For Growing Your Company Online With Sales Funnels."

​-- Expert Secrets: Get a free copy of the "Underground Playbook For Converting Your Online Visitors Into Lifelong Customers."

-- ​Traffic Secrets: Get a free copy of the "Underground Playbook For Filling Your Websites And Funnels With Your Dream Customers.

What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson and I got a really cool message I want to share with you guys tonight that at first may not seem like a marketing secret, but I really think it’s probably the secret behind all the gifts and talents we’ve been given.

Alright everybody, I hope first off, that you’re all having a great day. I just wanted to share a really neat experience. I’m going to get slightly religious just for like 5 seconds, just to be able to illustrate a point behind why I believe you’ve been given the gifts that you have. And my guess is if you’re here listening to my podcast, that’s not a fluke. You’ve been blessed with something amazing. And because of that you’ve also been blessed with the desire to share, to help or to serve, or do something.

It’s not something I understood for a long time, but it’s something I see so clearly now. I’m a big believer that God, he calls us to do things and then he qualifies us by often times taking us through a long, horrible road, for us to learn the skills we need to be able to accomplish the thing that he wants us to do. It’s interesting.

You may or may not believe that, but regardless, it happens, you’ve seen it. You’ve seen it when it’s like, I’m going to accomplish this thing, and I have no idea how I’m going to do that. And then you go through this horrible, painful process often times, and then on the back side of it, you’re able to accomplish that thing. It’s like, oh that actually wasn’t that bad. And it’s because of this journey, this road we’ve gone on that has increased our capacity to actually be able to do the thing that we need to do.

So last weekend we were in San Diego for Dave Woodward’s son Chandler got married, it was a cool thing. So my wife and I had a chance to fly down there and be there for the wedding and reception and it was really, really cool. And then Sunday we were flying back home. Normally we try to go to church or something, but we couldn’t because of the way the timing was, but there is a really cool thing in San Diego, it’s called the Mormon Battalion Visitor center, or something like that.

So we had an hour before our flight so we went from our hotel there, and went through the little tour of the thing. For those that don’t know Mormon history, it doesn’t really matter, but what’s interesting is that after people murdered the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, they were leaving and they were trying to come basically back west to find somewhere to hide from these people that didn’t like the Mormons.

So they get tthese handcarts and they’re moving and all this stuff, they’re literally fleeing from the government. And then all the sudden one day, these guys show up on these horses and they’re like, “Hey, we need 500 of your men to join this army to fight with the country against the Mexican armies.” And at first they’re like, “Dude, you guys literally killed our prophet, you ran us out of the town, you killed our people, you’ve done all these things, and now you want us to join your army?”

And anyway, and I’m not going to go too much into the whole story, but they prayed about it and felt like, yes we need to do this. So 500 of these men left their wives, left their children and went on this long, huge, year long journey down to Texas, across Arizona, all the way to California, to be a part of this little army called the Mormon Battalion.

They were promised by the Prophet, Brigham Young, at the time, that if they went on this journey that they wouldn’t actually see war, and their families would be protected. And that’s kind of this thing.

So they go on this huge journey, and I promise you guys who are the non-religious people who are listening, saying why is he talking about this? There’s a purpose and a point and I think it’s important. Anyway, he takes these people, they go on this journey for all these, for months and months and they finally get all the way to California, don’t see any war, in California they end up in San Diego, and when they’re in San Diego…It’s interesting, they brought with them, they’d learned how to make bricks and all this stuff. They came to San Diego and taught the people here this, and they actually helped settle San Diego, initially. And then from there, their year ended up being up with the army, so they had a chance to go back and get their families and help them come across the plains.

And what’s interesting about it, and this is why I want to share this, they went on this big, long journey that they felt called by the Lord to go on. They’re there to hopefully help with this war, they didn’t get in the war, they never fought, they never did anything, but they went on this journey and through this journey they got dehydrated, they didn’t eat or drink for weeks at a time, all sorts of things. They met Indians, did all sorts of stuff.

But on this journey they learned a whole bunch of really cool things. They learned how to farm in desert land, they learned how to make bricks, they learned how to find food, they learned all these amazing things. So then when they get back, they get their families and they move to Salt Lake. When you get to Salt Lake, Salt Lake was a horrible place. There’s this big salty lake in the middle of this valley, everything is dead. And this is where the Mormons decide to settle.

They get there, and these 500 men, that had gone on this big journey, they get here and they’re like, “We learned on this journey how to go and irrigate water, we learned how to make bricks, we learned how to do all these things.”All these skills that they had to have when they got to Utah to be able to settle that place and to be able to build this amazing city that they did.

And as I’m watching it, it’s like I literally, tears in my eyes as I’m realizing how symbolic this is to most of the missions that we go on. For some reason all of us have some kind of calling. And it comes in different ways. Some of you guys like you, got into this business because the calling was, “I need to make money for my family.” That was definitely what initially got me into this right. And it’s the equivalent of, “Hey you’re going to go to war to California, leave your family, go on this huge, long journey.”

So you go on this journey, and I think if people would have told us ahead of time, “If you do go on this journey, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re not going to have water, you’re going to be going through Arizona in the middle of summer….” If we knew the journey ahead of time we wouldn’t have done it. If you knew all the stuff you had to go through to build your business, you probably wouldn’t have done it initially, right. That’s just too much, I can’t do that.

Some of you guys came in, not because you wanted money, maybe it was because you wanted impact, or you had a message, or you found a product that you loved, or there’s someone you believed in and you want to support them. Whatever, we all come in for different reasons, different things that bring us into this journey. And then we have to go through a journey that typically is not easy.

If I look back on the last 14 years of my life, the journey to get to where we are today and to get Clickfunnels where, it was not all sunshine and roses. It was tough, it was really, really tough. But what happens when you go through those hard times, it increases your capacity to handle things. You learn little pieces at every single thing along the way.

And I feel that God is preparing you for whatever your real mission is. And I don’t even think that Clickfunnels is my real mission, to be completely honest. I think it’s something; Clickfunnels is preparing me for something different.  I think I’ve inklings of an idea of where my real mission is, but I could be completely wrong. I don’t know.

But all the ups and the downs, trials and errors that I learned, it helped me for a decade of my life to increase the capacity so that when this amazing opportunity of Clickfunnels came, I’ve been able to handle it. I look at my partners, people on my team, I look at the journeys that they all had to go through to be able to increase their capacity to be able to handle this thing.

Because, man I don’t know about, I think we’ve talked about this a little on this podcast, it’s not all sunshine and roses. It’s a battle every single day. We’re getting the crap kicked out of us sometimes on things. And it’s like you get knocked down, you get back up again. But if that would have happened five years, we couldn’t handle it. So we went on this interesting journey where we got beat up over and over and over again, to increase our capacity so when we got to this battle, to this war, to this stage we’re on now, we had the capacity to handle these things. It’s so fascinating.

And it just makes me so grateful for that journey and for those things. I think that’s why I started crying watching this thing about the Mormon Battalion. None of them wanted to go on that journey, they journey was horrible. But because they went on that journey, they come back to the Salt Lake Valley, and they had been blessed with the gifts and talents and abilities they needed to be able to thrive in the dessert next to a big, huge, salty, nasty lake.

I feel like all of us go on that same journey and I don’t know about most of you guys, but I’m sure the journey that you thought you were going on when you get back to where you are now, it wasn’t the same journey. It’s similar, but all these things you learned along the way made it possible.

Again, I feel like this Clickfunnels thing that we’re doing now, as much as I love it and I’m obsessed with it and I’m so grateful for it, the ups and downs and everything, it’s preparing me for something, it’s preparing the people on my team for something else. I don’t know what that is yet, but I don’t think…maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think God cares a ton about if my funnel converts or not.

Which, by the way, the new funnel we launched last week is killing it.

But he doesn’t care. But he’s giving me and you and us the talents, the skill set, the relationships, the abilities, the things we need so we can do what he really wants us to do.

So my recommendation for this podcast and my thoughts is for you guys to just to think about what is he really calling you to do. Maybe there is no God. I know some of you guys are thinking that, maybe there’s not, maybe this is all just coincidence, I don’t know. But regardless, this journey we go on is preparing us for the next thing. I believe in a God and I believe he is there guiding this stuff, so I’m not afraid to talk about that, I believe it.

But when you do believe it, it’s interesting. It’s just like wow, there’s this hand in this guiding me. What am I learning along the way? Why did I have this horrible trial, this horrible thing that happened? And it’s like, well, a lot of times we don’t know, but in hind sight, when you go back and look at it later, it’s like, “Wow, I could not have done that if it wasn’t for that.” How fascinating that that thing that I hated became such a good thing.

I remember at a Tony Robbins event, he asked everyone, “Who here likes surprises?” and everyone’s hands are raised. He’s like, “Bull crap. You like surprises that are good. No one likes surprises that are bad.” All the issues, all the bad things that happened, those are all surprises, you don’t like those surprises, right. We like the surprises that are good. But the other surprises are there.

But I believe they are there for our good, they’re taking us and preparing us and expanding our capacity so we can really do what our real mission is. And most of us probably don’t know what our mission is. But that’s why it’s important to keep moving forward in whatever the path that you’re on, because as you do that, that vision of what your true calling is, will appear someday. But only if you’re prepared for it. If you’re not prepared for it, it’s not going to be there.

“What a tragedy that moment finds him unprepared, or unqualified, that moment which could have been his finest hour.” One of my favorite quotes. So there you go. There’s a little religion from Russell. I’m going to preach to you guys tonight. I hope you don’t mind.

But I think it’s fascinating, and it meant a lot to me, so I just wanted to share with you guys as well. Just think about htat. This journey that we’re going on, the ups and downs and frustrations. Don’t give up because there’s something there you’re supposed to learn. There’s something there that’s supposed to increase your capacity and prepare you for something that’s coming.

I don’t know if that’s coming in a month from now, a week from now, a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years, I don’t know when it is. But I promise you, these skill sets, these things you’re learning along the way aren’t just happenstance. There’s no reason….I barely, I struggled in school. How in the world was I blessed with these abilities to write books and to write copy and to speak?

If you saw me ten years ago, I was the most awkward person ever. I couldn’t look someone in the eye and talk to them. I went on a mission for the Mormon Church and knocked on doors for two years, door by door. I was so shy and awkward and nervous and I hated it. I would have to speak in church on Sunday, I’d be so scared. All these things, but those things you learn, there’s so many ways that I’m using it today. It’s just fascinating. Such a cool thing looking backwards.

It’s hard seeing forward, so I just wanted to pause tonight and look backwards for my own perspective because I am now seeing the fruits of those things in my life. And depending on where you are, I know all of you guys are at different spots. Some of you guys are probably going through some really tough times right now and it’s hard to look back and be like, “Oh this blessing is awesome.” But I promise, it’s not going to last. There will be a time when you’ll be able to stop and look back and be like, “Wow, I’m so grateful for that thing.”

I still think about the most painful, probably the most painful experience in my life was when we built up our big call center, we had 100 people. Some of you guys have heard me tell this story before, but when the whole thing collapsed, and I had to let go 40, 50, 60 people overnight, when I had people who I loved and cared about and thought were my friends and they walked out on me. That was so, so much pain.

In that moment, I could have never looked at that and been like, “Oh this is awesome.” But it’s so fascinating now looking back on that, I am so, so grateful for that course correction that was forced upon me. If it wasn’t for that, I look at the direction we were going, who knows? It wouldn’t have been good, it wouldn’t have been this, it wouldn’t have been….

And that time when I was in the darkest…I still remember one morning trying to leave the house and I was in so much mental anguish that I didn’t want to go out the door. My wife came into my room and she’s like, “What’s going on?” and I couldn’t even talk, I just started crying. I remember she grabbed me and pulled me down to our knees and we sat there and she prayed for me, prayed for us, prayed for this thing.

Looking back, that was such a scary, scary moment and I didn’t know how I was going to survive that. From a business, from a.. .there were so many things. How am I going to survive that?  I don’t know. I have no idea. I stood up, she gave me a kiss, pushed me out the door and back into battle. We had to figure it out.

And because of that, again, that’s what increased the capacity. So when the trials and the issues come today I’m more prepared for them than I was then. And there’s still stuff happening. I talked about this on the podcast. Other things have happened that have been stretching me again, preparing for the next phase, whatever that might be. I just hope that I’m worthy and prepared for that when it comes. And I hope that you are as well.

Because our Heavenly Father, he wants to use you in ways that you don’t even know yet. If you’ll prepare for that, you’ll be amazed at what he’s able to do with you. It’s unreal.

So there you go, preaching before I go to bed. Hope you guys don’t mind. I appreciate you guys listening in. Whether you believe in God or not, doesn’t matter. Just know that there is stuff leading your life, and if you’re in a dark spot or a happy spot or whatever, have faith, keep pushing forward. It’ll all turn out right in the end. And that’s all I got. Appreciate you guys, have a good night, and I will see you soon. Bye.