DON’T Outsource Your Love Making

You wouldn’t outsource your love making, why would you outsource this?

On today’s episode Russell talks about how the marketing part of running a business is comparable to the sex part of a marriage. He also talks about the upcoming US election and why it will only suck for 5 minutes.

Here are some cool things that you will hear in this episode:

• Why marketing is so important and why you should never outsource it, much like the love making portion of a marriage.
• Why outsourcing marketing should only happen once a company has already been well established by a hard working entrepreneur.
• And how Russell’s experience cutting weight in college when the rules changed is similar to how entrepreneurs will be resilient after the US election.

So listen below to find out why you should never outsource your love making, or your marketing!

---Transcript---

Good morning everybody, I hope you’re doing amazing today. I’m feeling a lot better. I gave you guys a podcast yesterday while I was a little bit stressing out. Today’s a new day, it’s beautiful outside. Halloween was amazing, I’m feeling good. So no one will stress about me, pressure is gone and I’m back to a million percent. So I’m really, really excited.

I’m going to be heading out to go hang out with the inner circle members and I can’t wait. The next four days are going to be amazing.  I pinch myself knowing that this is my life. I get to wake up, go hang out with entrepreneurs from around the world who are changing the world in their own little way and they paid me to be here, which is crazy. I would pay to be in this room and I’m hanging out with these rock stars, it’s awesome and I’m loving it.

I’m driving in right now to go hang out with those guys. It’s interesting, I gotta something to share with you guys. I hope that’s alright, I hope you don’t mind. I’ve never really done client work before, until just recently on a couple of projects. Mostly because I’m using my super power, ninja funnel building skills to win friends and influence people. I look at Tony Robins, I built him a funnel. We built Dave Asprey a funnel. We built Milt Strauss a funnel. We built five of Marcus Lemonis’ companies funnels, we built the Flex Watch funnel. With Funnel Hacker TV we’ve been building funnels for people.

Anyway it’s the first time in my life where I’ve done other people’s stuff. Not going to lie, it’s not my most favorite thing on planet earth. I would rather just do my own stuff all day long. But because of circumstances, that’s been happening and I’ve done a bunch. It’s interesting, very, very interesting. In fact, I think I mentioned, I did a rant last week about people wanting me to do their funnels for them and stuff like that.

Yesterday one of my friends, they have a really successful ecommerce business and they lead a blog and did that. Someone on their team is trying to figure out Clickfunnels and that person is frustrated. They started to email us and the subject line was “Clickfunnels limitations.” I thought it was so funny. “The limitations in Clickfunnels is, we can’t up-sell people into our Shopify store.” I can’t even…..It just made me laugh.

Because we built Clickfunnels because of limitations of a traditional shopping cart. You can’t do anything important. All you can do is have a random store with a bunch of crap in it. And this girl is complaining to them and it just got back to me. “Clickfunnels is too limited.” Are you kidding me? The only thing that’s limited…I told them, “This girl sounds awesome, but she’s all concerned about a couple of pennies over here, but if she would just turn her head there’s tens of thousands of dollars over there. And she’s tripping on these pennies because she’s getting all caught up on that. But if you look at it from a different perspective, turn your head a little bit you’re like, ‘Holy crap, wait. Screw those little pennies. There’s a crap ton of money right there. Let’s run that direction instead.”

So I’m trying to explain that to them. And then one thing while I was talking to him, I sent them an email and then I recorded an audio to explain to him a little more. I said something to him, just the top of my head that all the sudden was a big aha moment for me. What I told him, “So you guys have this company that’s doing well and you want to grow it. The problem is you’re outsourcing the marketing.” I understand outsourcing the fulfillment of the marketing, but outsourcing this strategy of the marketing to somebody that doesn’t understand it. If you look at the marketing and the sales, that piece of it, that is the sex of business. It’s the most pleasurable, most fun, best thing in the world. That’s how you get customers. That’s the best part.

Then afterwards you’ve got customers, now you’re going to soccer games, you’re doing homework and all the other stuff, and if your kids are awesome like mine then it’s amazing. But the reality is the best part of business is not the fulfillment of the products, or anything else, it’s the selling. That’s the best part. And I was like, “Literally, right now you are outsourcing your love making. Why on earth would you ever do that? That’s the best, most important part of the entire business. Everything else is just the stuff you have to do so you can go and have sex again.

I apologize for those listening like, “Russell, you’re my nice Mormon friend. Why are you saying these things?” But it’s true. Think about this you guys. That’s what that is, and if you are outsourcing the strategy for your marketing, you are literally outsourcing your love life. How well do you think your marriage is going to be if you are outsourcing that piece? It can’t be good. It doesn’t matter, it cannot be good.

What I’ve found with all these people I’ve built funnels for, not all but for the most part, the one commonality is the entrepreneur is the artist who’s good at doing the thing. So their trying to outsource their love making and they want their company to grow. You cannot do that. You can’t. If you outsource that in your marriage it would not grow. And this is the exact same thing in business.

Again, you could hire people to do that actual fulfillment, but you as the entrepreneur, has to be able to think through the strategy because that’s the key. That’s the most important part of this entire business. People always laugh. “Russell, I’ve got this kind of business, I don’t know if what you do would even work for me.” Are you kidding me? What I do works for every business. It’s the strategy behind it. You can give me any product off the street and I can plug it into one of our strategies and it would work.

I’m driving down the street and I can a payday loan place, a cigar walk-in place, there’s a cabinetry place, an ink place. What else we got? Home furniture, the DMV. For every business there I drove past except for the DMV, their screwed because they’re run by the government, which is a whole other story for a whole other day. Every other business, I don’t care which one, you could hand it to me and I’d plug it into one of our strategies and it would work. Because I understand that piece of it and it’s the most important part.

So I told my friend, I said, “Look the people I like working with are companies that the entrepreneur still runs the business and the entrepreneur is obsessed with the marketing of the business.” And I started thinking about that. Hey tomorrow I get to see the Inner Circle members and guess what? The one commonality with every single person in our Inner Circle is that the entrepreneur still runs the company and the entrepreneur is obsessed with the marketing of the business. And guess what the commonalities between all those companies are? Holy crap, they’re successful.

I don’t care what it is you do right now. You could be selling fish, you could be selling McDonalds, whatever it is does not matter. Until you become obsessed with the marketing of that thing, you’re going to struggle. You will hit plateau’s you will not be able to grow because you’re outsourcing your love making. And until you take that back in and take the responsibility and the own-ness on your shoulders, you are going to struggle consistently until you do that.

So that’s my message for you guys today. If you are an entrepreneur listening to this and you run your company and you’re obsessed with the marketing, which I’m guessing if you’re hanging out and listening to me you probably are a little bit into that. And if not you’re going to be getting more and more into it.

I would say become obsessed with it. That is the only thing that actually matters in a business. So crazy is the fact that in 2008, the economy’s crashing and everything, and my friend works for the marketing department of some company and the economy started collapsing so what do these morons do? They went and they fired the marketing department because it was too expensive.

Do you guys see any problems with that? That’s like driving a car and it’s about to run out of gas, and you’re like, ”Crap, I can’t afford gas.” So you stop putting gas in it. And what happens? The car stops running. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. It’s insane. They fired the marketing team because they were tight on money and the whole company, bankrupt. How do you not see that one coming?

I remember there was a Dennis Leary stand-up comedy thing one time. He was talking about different deaths. He was like, “Did you ever hear of Lou Gehrig? He died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. How did he not see that one coming?” That’s how I feel. Oh crap, our company’s struggling, lets fire marketing and sales. They cost the most. They’re the only ones that actually matter. That’s what gets customers to give you money, which makes everything else work. Everything else is fulfillment. And obviously your fulfillment has got to be good or the customers will not come back to you. You can sell something amazing once, but if the support and fulfillment is not awesome, that’s the other side.

There is value in that, just like after you……in your marriage, then you have kids and your kids are amazing and there’s so much value and blessings that come from that. But if it wasn’t from that act. You cannot have a family unless you have sex, it’s impossible. Look around, there’s a whole bunch of people around. They all got here the exact same process, without any exception. There’s only one way it comes in. Same thing, the only way cash comes into a business, is through this one thing. If you are outsourcing that piece to somebody else then your marriage, your business is in trouble.

So now it is time you guys, to take it back upon yourself and say, “Look, I’ve been trying to outsource this, but I care enough about my business, customers, and the fact that hopefully I want future customers someday, that I’m going to make this my priority.” So the next question, “How do I do that? How do I geek out on this?”

First off, hopefully keep doing what you’re doing. Listening to my podcast, reading my book. There’s other great marketers out there as well that you can geek out on. I’m not saying that I’m the only one, because I’m definitely not. There are people way cooler than me. But plug in somewhere and study and learn and become obsessed and think about it. If you sit there and just think for a while, it’ll be amazing all the ideas that kind of pop into your head. And that’s the core piece you guys. Nothing else really matters. So whatever business you are in, realize that the only business you are really in is the marketing of that thing. It’s the only business that actually matters because the other business of the thing that ou actually do, will not survive long, will not get into the hands of people. Will not change people’s lives or the world unless you become obsessed with the marketing of that thing. That is the commonality among everyone successful that I work with.

It’s funny, I was talking to one of my buddies., BJ Wright, he was talking about how in business there is the is initial lift off time where it takes an entrepreneur with pigheaded disciple who doesn’t have any logic or reasoning to go and to push this thing into orbit. And it’s hard for those of you guys who have done it or are doing it right now, you know it is not easy to lift one of these puppies off the ground. It’s just like there’s a rocket on it. A rocket goes off and you look at the space shuttle, there’s this spaceship and there’s all these huge rockets and so much force and momentum and inertia to get it out of the atmosphere and eventually you get it out into where it’s in orbit. Where it’s not being sucked back down by the gravity of it all. It’s in orbit, hanging out and floating around the world.

At that point you can go plug in the Harvard MBA’s and all the professional people and that kind of stuff. What’s funny is at that point unless they totally screw it up, you’ve got enough momentum, you’ve got enough critical mass that it’s going to survive. I’ve got, I’m going to pick on some companies, one really good example of a company here in Boise. I have so much respect for the people who began it and some of the people who run it. They’re in kind of this boat and it’s Clickbank. Clickbank, there was a time when it took a lot of initial inertia to get it off the ground and get it into orbit. And now it’s up there floating around the world and the moon like a satellite. It’s out there.

It’s amazing how many things that these Harvard MBA’s to bring in to run it, how many things they have done to try to destroy this thing. For those who have used Clickbank over the last 5 or 6 years, you’ve seen it. They’ve done so many things, it’s almost like when Trump gets up and starts talking and says something. You’re just shaking your head like, “Are you serious? You said that? Why don’t you think for 5 seconds before you start talking? It would save everybody a whole bunch of headaches.”

And it’s kind of the same thing. Clickbank does thing after thing and it’s just like, wow. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were already in orbit this whole thing would be crashing into the earth and it would be done. It would be dead. But they have so much critical mass, some entrepreneur’s worked their butts of to get into orbit, no matter what these people do, it’s really hard to break a business. And that’s when you outsource your love making. When it’s in that spot and it’s gonna be alright.

But everything prior to that, it’s got to be you. You are the only one who cares enough to be like the 3 huge rocket things that with the jet that push it into orbit. That’s the hardest part. You can’t pay somebody to do that because they don’t care enough. It’s not just something like……I think that’s why…..you know how anti-VC money I am, but that’s what screws up most businesses. You get this person with an idea, they then get someone to come in and give them, here’s $5 million. They strap on these rocket engines and it shoots into orbit. Now plug in all the MBA’s and the MBA’s freaking screw it up and it’s not really in orbit because there was no foundation built by an entrepreneur to shove that thing up into the atmosphere. And these companies collapse.

That’s the Dotcom Secrets bubble over and over and over again. Nobody freaking pushed that thing into the atmosphere. Someone just cheated and bought their way in and because of that, these companies collapse. It’s rare that you get companies that survive that.

I got a long ride this morning, you guys. You have to bear with me, we’re at 14 minutes, that’s like twice the length of a normal podcast. I hope that that makes sense. And I hope that it inspires you as the entrepreneur to get your mind back into the marketing of your thing. Because you are the few that will get into orbit and someday it will be up there and you can plug in some MBA’s and they’ll screw it up for you but it won’t matter because you did such a good job getting it off the ground that at that point it doesn’t matter.

But today’s the time for you to become obsessed with the marketing of that thing that you do. And that’s the most important thing you can do. There you go guys. I hope that that helps. I got eleven minutes til Inner Circle starts and I’m stuck in freeway traffic not moving. So my friends in the Inner Circle, if you hear this and I’m not there yet, I apologize, but I’m hustling and I will be there soon.

With that said, you guys, I appreciate you all. Thank you for being entrepreneurs. Thank you for focusing on your marketing. Thank you for caring about your customers because if it wasn’t for people like you, the world would not keep spinning. It would keep spinning literally,  but…..it would be in trouble.

I’m looking as we’ve got this whole election thing happening in the next week or so, how messed up we really are. There’s no hope. No matter what happens, its bad news blues either way. The only thing we can control is what we do and ho we market our business and how we change people’s lives. So quit focusing on the election, it doesn’t matter, your vote doesn’t count. Just kidding it kind of does. I’m going to vote, don’t worry. Don’t stress about that, it’s so far out of our control. Focus on what is in your control.

The government is going to jack it up. They’re going to give us new rules, a new set to play. It’s like you’re a kid and you’re playing a game with your sister and you’re thrashing her, and she’s like, “Oh wait, the rules just changed.” And she’s changing them and then for a while she starts thrashing you and then you figure out the rules again and then you win.

Wrestling is the same way. When I was in high school, we used to cut a lot of weight. I was cutting about 30 pounds a week. I would weigh in on Monday at 160 and I would wrestle on Friday at 130, so I was cutting tons of weight. Then my senior year two kids actually died. Two or three kids in a month period of time at the college level died cutting weight. So they changed all the rules, which they should. It was great, and it’s been a thing that’s been good for wrestling.

But they had these new set of rules of how to make weight and they were ridiculous at first. I would have had to wrestle heavy weight based on their rules. I was no, I got to be a 165 pounder. So I’m in college and the first year everyone is freaking out because no one can make weight and it’s all jacked up. But then within a couple of months we figured out the system and how to beat it. And even with us beating the system it was still better for wrestling, first off. Don’t say that……..it’s awesome. We figured out how to bend the rules. What we found out, so the way that……..sorry it’s a long commute, you guys get all the stories in full detail.

So the way that the new rules would work is that basically you come at the beginning of the season and they test your body fat percentage and then you had, they test your body fat percentage, and you had to wait, and then you had to do a hydration test at the same time. And based on that they give you a calculation of what you’re able to cut your weight down to. The problem was, you come in and they take your body fat percentage and that’s first thing. The wrestlers were skinny. I was like 7 percent body fat back then. The more your body fat percentage was, the more weight you are able to cut, because they figure if you’re a 5 percent body fat, what would you be at? And that’s how they figured out the ratio. So what we learned is someone does a pinch test and they have to pinch you, if you flex your muscles, it pops you up about 3 or 4 percent body fat. So we figured out one way to try to tweak the system.

Number two is if any of you right now were to go take a hydration test like the test we had to take, you would fail. It’s literally impossible to pass hydration tests. Unless you sit there and you drink four or five gallons of water right before. So what’s the problem, a gallon of water is 8 pounds. So just to pass hydration test, you basically have to gain 8 pounds, which is all sorts of messed up. So we’d fail our hydration test, but we had so much weight that we couldn’t hit the metrics.

So finally one day, I don’t know who the genius was that figured it out, but somebody figured out, “Hey what if we get super hydrated, drink a whole bunch the night before, come in the next morning, don’t pee, hold all that hydrated pee inside your bladder and then go put on your plastics and cut weight for 12 hours, lose 15,20 pounds, then when you go to do your hydration test you”……because you had to do all three of these things at the same time, body fat, hydration and the pinch test. So then you got this hydrated pee in your body, even though your body is completely dehydrated, but your bladder is full. So basically for 12 hours, you’d have to pee so bad, you were going to die because you just drank a gallon of water the night before. You’re like, I’m going to die literally.

But you have plastics on, weight cutting. 12 hours your cutting weight and you’re trying to hold this pee in, and then you go and you do your hydration first, so you pee and all the pee in your bladder’s completely hydrated because it’s from the night before, and then you pee out 8 gallons, so you lose 8 more pounds and then you lost the other 15 pounds through cutting weight that day, and then you flex on pinch test and move between those three metrics, now you’re able to hit the weight you need to hit.

So it’s like, the rules are going to come out and they’re going to suck, but as soon as we think through we’re going to find a way. And as entrepreneurs that’s what we do, right? I mean, the wrestlers figured it out, and I love my fellow wrestlers, but we’re not the sharpest group of males in the bucket, you know what I mean. So we figured that out, I just know the entrepreneurs, the government is going to jack things up. Raise taxes or change things or do stupid things that only make sense to people that aren’t us, and it’s going to suck for 5 minutes. We’ll figure out a work around and be back to normal. So don’t stress about it, just stress about learning how to market your thing better because that’s the only things that’s really going to matter.

So there you go guys. We are twenty minutes in and I am right close to the hotel. So I’m going to leave for today. Hopefully you got your money’s worth and a whole lot more. Now if you guys ever need to cut weight you know the secret, which is pretty awesome. I hope that helps. Alright guys, I will talk to you soon. See you guys later, bye everybody.