The Day That You Became…

Do you remember the day that you became?

On this episode Russell talks about the moment he became a wrestler and how he felt and how that relates to the moment he became a marketer.

Here are some of the cool things to listen for in this episode:

• Why Russell nearly became a basketball player instead of a wrestler and what changed his mind.
• What the four or five things Russell believes he is down to core.
• And why as humans, we are constantly in search of good feelings and how they shape our lives.

So listen below to hear about the moment Russell became a wrestler, and the moment he became an internet marketer.

---Transcript---

Hey everyone, good morning. This is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing In Your Car. Sorry I’m stuttering, I’m actually on the freeway right now. Normally I do these things closer to my house so it’s a little less chaotic. But this morning I had to get up early. And I didn’t get to bed last night until almost 2 o’clock. Because we got Wynter Jones is in town and a couple of other people. So I have a good excuse to pull all nights, working on funnels. So we did last night and then I had to get up this morning because we had a film shoot at 6:30 at this amazing location we found down in Nampa, Idaho. It’s kind of out in the ghetto and then you walk through the door and it’s this amazing building with stone walls, Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, it’s amazing.

A bunch of people who work for Disney, a bunch of animators in there, so it’s a bunch of super creatives….whoa, crap. I’m on the freeway, some people stopping.

Anyway, all these amazing creative people in there that are building, I don’t know, movies and animations and stuff like that, a whole bunch of Macs, and smart people. It was really, really cool. So we filmed something in the basement there for Mark Joyner when we filmed his episode for Funnel Hacker TV, which is coming soon. We filmed in the basement because it was this really creepy, nasty basement. We filmed the sales video for Mind Control Marketing there and it turned out so cool.

But I remember I was like, “Oh that upstairs was so cool. Someday I want to film in there.” So we were filming the book promo video for Expert Secrets and that’s where we decided to film it at. So that’s what we were doing this morning. We got there super early and we were trying to film before anybody woke up. And the crazy thing, I went to bed almost 2 o’clock and my alarm went off at 5:15 and I had two alarms, just in case I slept through them both. Anyway, at 5:45 I sat up and I was like, “What?” both of my alarms had turned off. I was like, “Oh my gosh.” So I had a freak out. I had to run and get ready and shower. I’m doing a juice fast this week, and luckily I didn’t have time to eat because I couldn’t eat.

But I jumped in the car and raced down here, and I was a couple of minutes late. Then the guy who I guess Brandon said that he forgot to RSVP until we were actually coming. So the dude didn’t show up. So Brandon’s calling him at 6 in the morning. Luckily one of the employees showed up early and got us in. So we got in there and started filming and…..sorry, I’m pulling off the freeway exit right now.

So we started filming and we only have like 30 minutes before their entire staff and team showed up for work. So we had to go fast. So we get everything set up, anyway, it turned out really cool. I’m excited to see what, how it all turns out. So you guys will see it soon on Expertsecrets.com, when the book is all done.

But that’s what’s happening. I’m heading back from there. I’m super tired, so I might go home and take a nap for a little bit. Because we have another long day today of amazing stuff we’re building out. Not only are we trying to get the Expert Secrets funnel done this week, we’re also trying to get Super Funnel, Exit Funnel and a whole bunch of other cool things that all tie together for the whole launch. That’s a story for another day. But that’s kind of what’s happening.

So I had a message I wanted to share with you guys today because I thought it was interesting. I recorded a video yesterday, and I don’t know about you but I, in Expert Secrets I talk about how everybody needs to build an index of stories you’re going to have. You never know when you’re going to use them and how you’re going to use them. So a lot of times this podcast is a testing ground for me to tell a story. Then I tell stories at the office and I tell stories when I speak and in a million different places. It’s funny, Brandon who has been filming me every day for the last two years, he was like, “dude that was a new story, I’ve never heard that one before.” I was like, “Really, I’ve never told that. It’s been in my inventory of stories forever.” But apparently I never told it.

So it was basically a story about the day that I became a wrestler. When I was growing up my dad was a wrestler, but I was going to be a basketball player, because that’s what short, white guys do is we become basketball players. So every day I practiced basketball, and I knew that’s what I was going to do and be. I don’t want anything else besides being a basketball player.

So that was kind of my, what I thought my future was going to be. And then my dad though, was a wrestler growing up and I guess I had wrestled for a year or two when I was, I don’t know, 5 or 6 years old. But apparently my parents said I hated it. So I dropped out of it and was never going to do it again. But then, lo and behold, in 8th grade as I’m pursuing my basketball career, it was bad because I remember Spud Webb back then, was a little short guy who was shorter than me, but he could dunk. I was like, “If Spud Webb can dunk, then I can dunk.” And I never, I got taller than Spud Webb, but I still couldn’t dunk. But that’s a story for another day.

Anyway, I thought I was going to be a basketball player, but one of my buddies two doors down from me, he went to wrestling practice and came home and started to tell my dad, “I went to wrestling practice today.” And my dad was like, “What? There’s wrestling practice here? I’m a wrestler and my son’s going to be a wrestler.”  So that was kind of what happened. Sorry, I’m driving and doing three things and I keep dropping everything. So not what I should be doing. If you guys were watching, I’d probably be getting yelled at by someone.

Anyway, so my dad was like, “We need to go to wrestling practice.” And he tried to get me to. I was like, “No, dad. I’m a basketball player. I’m not going to wrestle. Come on now. There’s no wrestling in the NBA, how am I going to do this?” Finally my dad forced me to go to wrestling because he’s like, “Nope, we’re wrestlers in this family.” I was like, “What? I don’t want to wrestle.” But he kind of made me go. That was 8th grade.

So 8th grade I did wrestling and I kind of liked it but I was like, it’s not basketball, come on now. So I just told my dad, “I’ll wrestle right now but…” and the way school worked in Utah for me, 9th grade was basically junior high and 10th grade was high school. 9th grade had started and I was like, “Well, I’ll do wrestling in 9th grade. But my sophomore year I’m going out for the basketball team because I’m a basketball player.” And he’s like, “Okay, whatever.”

So 9th grade I started wrestling and I start liking it, but not loving it. I remember my very first wrestle off, and the way wrestling works, it’s kind of cool, it’s not like the coach picks who’s going to be first tier or second tier, all that kind of stuff. You wrestle and whoever wins, wins. So they line up all the weight classes, there’s like 5 or 6 people in my weight class and then you have a wrestle off.

So you wrestle everybody else to see if you’re going to be first string, second string, third string. So there’s one dude who is really good, he was varsity, then there was a JV guy and a couple of other guys and then there was me. So we all got to wrestle and the guy who had been JV the year before, I had him in a wrestling match and I was like, I had no plans of winning. I just thought, he’s a high school kid, he’s a man for crying out loud. I’m a little kid.

Anyway, we wrestled and I beat him. And the coach is like, “Congratulations, you’re going to be JV this week.” And I’m like, “What?” and he’s like, “Yeah, you’re going to wrestle in a tournament.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” So I go home and tell my parents. I’m like, “I beat the guy in the wrestle off.” My dad’s like, “What?” and I’m like, “Yeah, I’m going to be wrestling this week.” And he was all excited obviously and told my mom and told, you know, everybody.

Fast forward now a couple of days, it was the wrestling tournament, we were wrestling Bingham High School. I remember we get to weigh-ins and I’m a little tiny, skinny 130 lb kid at the time. So I get on the scale and you know, you strip down to your tighty-whities and you step on the scale and look at your weight. And then the guy who I’m wrestling gets on the scale, he steps up and I look at him and the dude had a mustache. I don’t know about you, but to this day I can’t grow a mustache. I’m not still not quite manly enough to do that. He had a mustache, and again this is in high school.

I was like, “Are you kidding me? I’m a little kid. This guy in a mustache is going to destroy me.” I was so scared. So I remember after weigh-ins, we’re getting warmed up and I see my dad and I’m like, “Dad, the guy I’m wrestling has a mustache.” And my dad’s like, “What does that matter?” I’m like, “I don’t know but he’s like a real man Dad. I can’t grow a mustache.” Anyway, I go out there for this match. I go out there I’m wrestling, I’m going through the whole match, I’m wrestling this guy and I don’t remember much about the match. All I remember is at the end I won. I stood up and I shook his hands and I remember looking at him in the face and I was like, “I just beat a dude who’s got a mustache.”

And then the ref raised my hand. As soon as I raised my hand, my head went up and I look at the audience, it’s the bleachers, and in the bleachers there’s two people, my mom and my dad. My dad’s standing up clapping and that day I became a wrestler. I was like, this is the greatest feeling I have ever felt ever. I never got that from basketball, never got it from anything else. I’m a wrestler, that day I became a wrestler.

I was thinking about that. I was like, different parts of our life we identify with different things. For over a decade of my life, I was a wrestler. I still am in my mind. I identify with that, that’s who I am. At my core, there’s a few things I am, I’m a wrestler, I’m a Mormon, I’m a dad, I’m a husband, there’s a couple of things and I’m an internet marketer. There are things, four or five things I really self identify and each of those situations, I know the day that I became that person. I know the day I became a wrestler. I know the day that I became a Mormon. I know the day that I became an internet marketer. And it’s when you have that experience and you’re just like, “Dang, that feeling, I never want to lose that feeling again. That was the greatest feeling in the world for me.”

For my business, I remember when it was. I got online and I was trying all these things, you’ve probably heard my back story a million times. I was trying thing after thing after thing and all sorts of stuff and nothing was working. I remember the very first time I created something and put it out there and somebody bought it. And it was $20 and the $20 came to my Paypal account and I was like, “Dang.”

I remember coming home and telling my wife, I had a Paypal credit card at the time. We had no money in the Paypal account, but i had a Paypal credit card. Someone bought and we had $20, and for me as a college kid, $20 was insane. I came home and told Collette, “We made our first sale.” And she’s like, “What? You made a sale?” I’m like, “Yeah, someone paid us $20” and we were so excited we went out to dinner that night. And we used my Paypal credit card and paid for dinner. I mean, it wasn’t a fancy place, probably Burger King or something, that is my favorite restaurant. But we went to Burger King or something and I think we went to a dollar movie.

But it was like, I earned this. This is something, because at that point, my parents had supported me my whole life. My, I had Summer jobs, but I was wrestling all the time, so I never had a real job. Then I got married, my beautiful wife supported me. She was doing two jobs. For the first time in my life, I had created something that made money. That night, that dinner, that was mine. That was my gift to her. I created something that paid for that dinner. It paid for that movie. That night is when I became an internet marketer. I had that feeling. I love this feeling. I never want it to leave. I want that for the rest of my life.  And then I became obsessed and passionate about it.

So for you, I’m curious. I want you to think about it and hopefully it’ll be fun for you to go back and think, but what was the day, think about whatever it is your business is, the thing that you’re so passionate about giving and serving and sharing with people. What was the day that you became that person? That you became a wrestler, that you became a marketer, that you became a fitness coach, that you became whatever it is for you. What was the day that that happened? I want you to think about that, and that’s my gift for you today.

Because as I thought about it yesterday I was just like, what a cool experience. It’s just cool. I hope that this gives you a minute to remember that time for you and enjoy it. Because that feeling is what drives you now. You had that feeling once and you want it again and again and again. I want you to remember that because it was interesting, when Tony Robbins came to Funnel Hacking Live he talked about why we do things and it all came down to basically we do things, everything for humans is about a feeling. We want that feeling. We want to feel good, we want to feel loved, but it’s a feeling. That’s why we do everything.

That’s why people turn to drugs, to try to get the feeling. That’s why people turn to love, they want that feeling. That’s why people turn to all, it’s all about feelings. Sometimes we have a feeling and that’s what drives stuff, but forget about it. We don’t think about it, we don’t….just remembering that feeling of me getting my hand raised yesterday, it was, it felt good. You forget about that. We’re always racing for the next good feeling, but sometimes if you stop back and just think about the feeling you had, the day you became who you are, because that’s the feeling you’re chasing after every single day.

That’s honestly a feeling I chased for 12 years of my life while I was wrestling. That feeling of raising my hand and looking in the stands and seeing my dad, that was the feeling. That’s why I woke up super early in the morning, that’s why I stayed up late at night. That’s why I cut weight week in and week out, day in and day out for years. It’s the reason I got my eyes cut open. I had stitches, I had blood, the reason I sacrificed my body, my time, my energy, my effort, my everything, is because of that feeling. I wanted that again.

So what’s cool about us, as humans, we’ll stop and remember we can get that feeling again. So today I want you guys to sit back and I want you to remember that feeling. And that’s my gift to you. Just enjoy it for a little bit, before you go chasing it again, because it’s there and you can remember it and you can bring it back.

So I hope that helps you guys, it felt good for me today. Hopefully it felt good for you as well. And that’s all I got. I’m almost back to the office, I’m going to let you guys go. Appreciate you all, have an amazing day, and talk to you guys soon. Bye everybody.