30 Jul Funnels Time Consistency| Epis 27
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hello guys, welcome to the Teach Your Easy Podcast with Catherine Storing and you guessed it, I am Catherine Storing and today I’m so excited, because I get to interview someone that I’ve been following for a while and he is super awesome. He has agreed to talk to us today about what he does. His name is Stephen Larsen, and he is the host of the awesome Podcast Sales Funnel Radio. If you’re not listening to it, Listen, Listen, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. You have to go subscribe because it’s amazing. Hi, Steven, how are you doing? Doing fantastic, thanks for having me on. Oh, absolutely. So thank you so much.
I want to just jump right in, because I know you’re busy. And everybody’s dying to find out who you are and what you do. So in a nutshell, who are you? Well, I, most people know me because I worked at ClickFunnels. And I was a funnel builder over there. And I left and I kind of did it publicly so that people could follow the processes. I left my job about a year and a half, two years ago and wow a year and a half now, and it’s gone really well. And so that’s kind of where people follow me.
Yeah, I think you’re doing pretty well. Yeah, absolutely. So let’s talk a little bit before you left that job. So I know that you’ve been trying to be an entrepreneur for a while. So how many businesses or enterprises did you try before you hit the jackpot? So I actually recounted about a week ago, week, two weeks ago, and it was 17 funnels. Wow! But it was actually 34 in total, since I was like 20 years old.
Wow, that’s amazing. So for those of you guys who are new and don’t know. A funnel is a series of very calculated and well done pages; and the strategies that you put together so when people find you, they actually go through a process. So that’s what a funnel is, just to keep it simple. And ClickFunnels is like the grandfather of funnels, like the player on funnel. So you did 34 funnels before 17 funnels and 34 tries overall, before I even knew what a funnel was. Though, it was probably another, you know, 16,17 before one really blew up.
There’s something right there. Because many times we think like the first funnel, that this is the one that’s going to work out for me. And then if it doesn’t work out, people, most people quit because they’re like, Okay, that was it. But you have so many tries. Yeah, it’s pretty crazy what you learned by doing that, and you learn what doesn’t work really well, but it’s kind of interesting, because while you’re in the middle of it, like you know, and I was praying a lot. And I’ll saying please help me on this. And what’s funny is the failures were the answer a lot of times. Like, thankfully, a lot of times a lot of them didn’t work, otherwise I’d be stuck doing them. And that sounds like silly, but a lot of them would not be a cool business to be in. And a lot of them would have been terrible if they did work and would anyway.
Yeah, I love that. I love that you said that. Sometimes the failure is the thing, because you can be successful at the wrong thing. Yeah, that’d be terrible. It is. It is. Awesome, so then you were trying. When you were doing all those tries did you have a regular nine to five or were you doing it without having a job? Well, I mean, when I was 20 years old, I was doing all sorts of stuff, you know. Eventually I was in college, and we’re trying to get jobs. I worked a lot of labor jobs. I eventually went into the army. I mean, I did a lot. So we were scraping by and all these like side things. And every time I’d go home, I was like, I gotta figure out something else. So I just kept going and trying to launch something. Most of them were terrible.
Right, and you had a wife already. And kids, I mean, in the end the pressure, the pressure of having to perform and have something work, not only for yourself, but for your family as well. Yeah, which is a huge blessing to you. Because I think otherwise, people don’t take it very serious, you know. And they’re like, “hey, you know, I gotta, I could totally go do this.” But you know what, I don’t have a lot of pressure on here. Now, what’s the next Netflix show? You know? And you’re like, what, like, when you have, I was telling my sister.
She’s like, “Steven, I don’t know, should I go back to school? Because I learned all this stuff. I’m making more than the teacher.” And I was like, you know, what’s powerful is if you go back to school, what I found is that pressure creates amazing systems. Stress, good stress creates amazing systems. And so I got really good at these finite details that runs these major parts of my company now. And there’s not a lot of people running them because of the systems put in place. And it wouldn’t have happened if I was not in like some kind of scary scenarios. So, right, that’s amazing. I love that.
So let’s talk about the time that you decided or you put yourself in this place of learning how to use ClickFunnels really well and make yourself remember. And I love that story of you getting it, just magically and praying and just getting yourself on a bike to get to ClickFunnels. And so what happened? Then you get there, and how do you say yes to that when you’re already an entrepreneur, now you’re going to go work for somebody else?
It was a little weird. But I wasn’t like that successful of an entrepreneur. So, I mean, we still needed money, and my wife wanted security. And so I wasn’t, I already knew that, you know, plus, it was Russell Brunson, you know. Right!! It’s really easy to say yes to that and knowing that what I was gonna go do was what I wanted to do anyway, down the road. Like, I was like, oh, man, I’m going to learn from the guy himself. Like, you know, it was really easy to get to say yes to that job. It accelerated everything else that I do.
Yeah, it’s like, if you want to be a publisher, and you go start by working at a publishing place, I had a few really wise professors in college tell me: “like, we’ve noticed the most successful entrepreneurs, they leave college, they don’t just jump straight into it.” What they do is, they go learn from a company on their dime, they get really good, they learn the skills and learn the ropes, then they jump and it’s way easier. And that’s kind of what happened.
Right? I love that. And we know that there is wisdom when you have a lot of people who advise you. So I think that was great. So you took that job. You’re working with Russell, who was amazing. And you guys have the faith in common, which is amazing. So you’re in an environment where you can be yourself, which I think is huge. And you got that job. What did having that job do for you as an entrepreneur? As you were working there; because I know your story, but there are people who probably don’t. So you have your nine to five, what happens in between your nine to five and after you leave for the day?
I still really want to be an entrepreneur, right? So it’s this catch 22 and I’m working for this brilliant man who’s just incredible. And I love him like a brother, we chat a lot still. I just have so much respect and admiration for what he’s done. He’s changed the world. And so it’s really conflicting in your head as an employee, you’re like, what am I gonna keep building stuff on the side? And you know, like Russell could see that in me. So we’d have open chats about everyday. Like, hey, man, if you need to go do this, or that or whatever, like, it’s totally fine. I get it. You’re kind of like me at the core, you know, which made me feel a lot less stressed out and pressure with it. But when I started doing it was like, I still wanted to go do that.
Like being entrepreneur I wanted to control. I didn’t want to, even if it was the amazing Russell Brunson, I didn’t want to just have one source of income. So I was like, well, I gotta build some more funnels. So I was a good funnel builder. But I wasn’t an amazing marketer. And I didn’t know that. And so I was building funnels for Russell, but I didn’t have that much say in marketing. It was when I started learning the marketing that I could finally, do both and the money started coming in on my own.
But what I started doing was in the evenings, I would go back home. And, you know, I went to Funnel Hacking Live 2016 and just bootstrapped my way there. Right, I had like no money, and traded funnels for plane tickets and funnels for hotel nights and funnels for the event tickets. And rode a bike through San Diego with my luggage over my shoulder. So ridiculous, but, you know, you kind of skip reason when you’re kind of desperate. So anyway, it was only like a week after that, that I was sitting next to him as his employee.
It happened so fast with funnel hacking live was over. I graduated that next week was like three days later. And then I was sitting next to Russell like four days after that. I mean, it was so so quick. And so we were still pretty broke, even though now I’m salaried as an employee. So I would ride my bike from our little tiny apartment. When we first got there, it was like nine miles a day into Click Funnels. And I’d work on my own stuff from 6am to 9am. And when he would come in, then I would work on his stuff from 9am to 6pm. And then I go back home, bike back home, we finally moved a little bit closer wasn’t nine miles, but still it was four miles. And I go back home and I’d be with my family for a few hours, put them to sleep. And then from about, nine to midnight, I would work on my own stuff again. So nine to midnight, wake up at 5am bike back into Click Funnels and 6am to 9am. So, I was squeezing out basically a second job worth of time four to six hours, usually a day on my own stuff. And that’s plenty for anyone who’s starting.
It was funny when people would say, “I don’t have time I have kids”. I had all this stacked against me. I was still in the army. I was still, there was so much going on. You just make it work. Wow. That’s it, I love that so many things that you said about you were so integral. Yeah, you want it to be an entrepreneur, but you also were hired by someone that you admire. So you have to be doing the job that you were hired to do. But also you kept a flame alive I still want to be an entrepreneur, I still want to do that thing that I’m called to do.
So what was that thing inside of you, do you know? Yeah, I want to be an entrepreneur but what inside of you said, I have to do this. You could’ve stayed at ClickFunnels and do pretty well and still and be happy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was part of the conflict. Man, you know, so I, I left and part of that call, I don’t know how to answer that. Really. I’ve always been selling stuff. I’ve always been interested in sales. I almost got kicked out of high school because I wouldn’t stop selling just random knick knacks to people. I ended up having to do a whole bunch of community service. Like, it’s just in my bones. You know, I just want to sell stuff and, when I finally learned how to market though, that’s really when things took off. Yeah, yeah. I guess I get it. I think it’s just your thing. It’s, what you were created to be and do? Yeah, Alex Charfen, calls it the call of contribution. And that’s, that’s a great way to say that. Yeah, I think so I think it’s pretty great, too.
So the day comes where you have been building, you’ve been working for a year and a half, which is a pretty long time, if you want to quit your job, and you want to work for yourself. So it’s like you already have that pretty awesome work ethic of whatever time I have. I’m going to be working on my stuff. And you mentioned now many people say I don’t have the time. So once you’re working for Russell, you knew that whatever time you have left was very precious. He was not fooling around. It was working.
Yeah. Yeah, well, it was like that in college, too. I mean, one of the reasons, I got kicked out of my first semester of college, was because I just did not learn. And so I got pretty much straight F’s. And then I had to wait about four years. I learned how to learn and I learned how to learn faster, then I came back into college and got pretty much straight A’s almost the whole time. And which is awesome. What was funny about it is what I was really focused on was learning how to learn fast, and not necessarily deep. Get my homework done. And usually, way less time it took everybody else and then spend the rest of time building funnels, and in college. And so it’s the same work ethic that I took from college where I was hiding in random parts of campus. So I wouldn’t get kicked out when buildings closed. I just took that into Russell Brunson area, where I’m still kind of like grabbing these little bits of time here and there. And then going in, you know, it’s interesting, a lot of people will say like, well, Steven, I don’t have a full eight hours, I can go work on this stuff. And so what they do is they write it all off. But if you look at anybody who’s sitting here, like I’m sitting here, I’ve got two employees, I’ve got 18 1099 a month now.
Big company for our size and for our age. And it’s going awesome. But like, none of us worked for eight straight hours. You know, it’s not natural to do that anyway. So people have to get past that and say, well, most people work only in like two to three hour chunks anyways, at a stretch. Usually even shorter than that. So when they say, “hey, I don’t have the amount of time,” they probably do. And I challenge anyone who’s listening or watching this now to take what’s called a time study, and just write down everything that you’re doing in 15 minute chunks for like two days. And you will see so many places that you are wasting your time that you did not know. And I’m not saying that you got to be this time Nazi and never do anything fun. But this is a time in a season to hustle. You know, and I don’t subscribe to the gotta hustle till you die like Gary Vee kind of talks about. It’s not healthy anyway. But for a while until you get the cash flow coming in. I’m totally okay with suffering a little. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.
So you were talking about you had a job, but you were still pretty broke. What were you doing with that money that was coming in, that help you build your business, or I will call it your empire that fast? I actually didn’t use any of it. I never put any of my own money ever in our business. Which is really controversial for people. What I learned how to do was, there’s a huge difference between money and value. And so you don’t need money to create value. It obviously helps, but you don’t need it. So I learned how to create value ahead of having money. And so as you create all this value, eventually money comes in, I’ll just dump it right back into the business.
So I went and did some consulting sessions for people because I had developed enough of a skill by the time I started at ClickFunnels. I started, like, hey, I’ll look at your funnel, hey, I’ll look at your funnel. So I started charging for that little bits here and there little, referral fees here in there. And I remember once I had 900 bucks, and that’s from a single consultation that I did. And it was how that started that 900 bucks is what fueled getting vas and getting things started. And start creating those first real powerful products and kind of dumped back in and dumped it back in. It sounds slower, but you actually learn it deeper. And then you actually go faster than those who had to take on cash.
Right. So it sounds like you develop this amazing skill. And then you learn how to monetize that skill. So he can kind of keep the wheels going on your business while you’re still developing this amazing strategy and marketing skills. That’s awesome. That is awesome. So I love all the things that you said. So be consistent, be committed, you have enough time, use what you got. And if you’re going to get a job, get a job where you can learn deeper and wider the thing that you want to learn. Did I get that right?
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah, it’s funny, like, there’s some serious power to having some negativity in your life.
Often what’ll happen is, people will look at the surrounding and say, I don’t qualify to do my dream, Steven, I don’t qualify because I have this job. And I’m qualified because I have, you know, whatever, whatever mental thing going on. I don’t qualify because I don’t have any cash.
And what’s interesting is if you learn like, really fast, if you learn to like, the first thing is to just change your attitude about it. Like I was going to some counseling, and in college, I was having a hard time and this counselor looked at me and he goes, have you ever been tested for ADHD? And I was like, who are you to tell me what’s wrong with me? And I was super mad about it. You know, I was like, and just I was kind of freaking out a little bit. I was like, I don’t think I have it and he’s like, you’re DOING IT RIGHT NOW! Like, yeah, anyway, so I went and took this test, I brought it back to my wife, and talk to me through it’s like, just take the test. I was like, alright, so I’m going to take the test. And as I take the test and bring it back to him, he’s like you don’t have ADHD, you have a lot of symptoms of it. And I was like, isn’t that how you choose that you’ve have it. nope, I do or don’t whatever.
But what I’m saying is like, it became this banner for me, it became this whip, this flag as to the reason why I don’t qualify for my dream. And I started becoming kind of like this, like, no, I don’t qualify, I not this anymore. And it sounds dumb. But like, you know, I didn’t have a briefcase, I thought I didn’t qualify because I didn’t have a briefcase. Like it sounds stupid, but like we all do that in our head like, well, I don’t qualify because of this, right? You know, this dreams, not in my reach because of X, Y and Z.
And what people don’t realize is that those are actually gifts. But not until you flip your attitude about it. And when you can change the attitude about it and say like, Oh, that’s God actually telling me. Yes. And by the way, here’s a gift called possible ADHD, which makes you work harder, longer than anyone else could ever handle. You know what I mean. By the way, you’re going to be broke as a gift and learn to bootstrap this so you can teach other people how to do this, who don’t have money either. And go fight this whole notion you need VC funding to be in business.
It’s like it’s funny, like every little thing. Steven, you’re going to suck in college so bad you will be kicked out so you can learn how to learn. And like, yeah, I have, I have four full bookshelves of just books. And that is not something I would have done normally. It’s just funny because like anything that you feel like is standing in the way is actually the reason you’re qualified to move forward. But never until you can change the attitude about it and say thank you for it. And then that’s like the easiest way to move forward. It’s really cool. Then you’re like man failure is not really real. Everything’s progression. You’re either progressing or not because failure is really a facade.
Absolutely. Oh my god. I love that. That is so so awesome. And I know that you’re helping so many people. What do you have going on right now? I know you have something big coming up what’s happening? Yeah, I’ve got my big event called Offer Mind where I teach my formats and formulas for creating really lucrative offers so teaches how to design and launch them. It’s really cool. I love it.
So where can people find out more about it and potentially go it’s an Offermind.com. It’s like mastermind, but everyone ever hears my mastermind I got sick. I was like I don’t want to have a mastermind or some event con everyone says con so I mean it will play on words offer mine. I love it. Russell Brunson is going to keynote the last day, which is really exciting, so exciting.
I just want to thank you for all you do, I know that you have a lot of energy, which is why I think we connect and you’re so passionate about what you do. So I appreciate you, lots of people are watching and learning from you but also being inspired. Because you know you’re a kid still, you’re so young, and you’re doing so well and doing it being yourself which is awesome. I love that you embrace that you are who you are. And you’ll have fun while you’re doing it. So I want to thank you for that. And wish you the very best with Offer Mind. I know it’s going to be amazing.
And any final words for those people that are thinking of getting started and just the last final push? Yeah, the number of often the number of opportunities that come your way is not equivalent to success. Get really good at saying no, really good. Chose one thing and say this is my opportunity and say no to everything else, no matter how attractive it looks.
I love it. Thank you so much for your time. I’m so excited for you. God bless you and have an amazing day.
Hey, thanks so much. Appreciate it. You’re welcome.
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