SFR 134: Questions Invite Revelation...

Good questions get good answers. Yet, the opposite is true as well. Solving marketing problems starts with checking that your asking the right questions...

I'm Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio, and this episode is gonna just totally rock. It's pretty freaking awesome.

I spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine-to-five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business. The real question is, how will I do it without VC Funding or debt, completely from scratch. This podcast is here to give you the answer. Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels. My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up guys. Hey, I'm very excited for this episode to be honest though. It's funny as I look back I officially got hired by ClickFunnels two years ago almost to the day of me recording this. Which is awesome. Super, super cool. And essentially when I look back and realize everything that's happened, and a lot of you guys come up and congratulate and stuff like that and that means a lot and I appreciate it. But what's been more powerful for me is to look back and see what I had to do personally to really start winning at the game.

You know what I mean? One of my favorite things that were said in this last Funnel Hacking Live is by Myron Golden, which he just said he'd get on the show, which I'm very excited about.

So when that happens obviously, anyway, super stoked about that. But he said that one of the things that he did to win is he just stayed in the game long enough to just know what the game was, you know what I mean?

He stayed in the game long enough to be able to actually win at the game. And sometimes people jump in like, "This is a scam." Right?

But they were in there for like three months. I've been going at it for like five, six years there, guys and been a ton of fun, really enjoyed it, specifically the Internet game anyway. Anyway, as I was kind of looking back, I've been thinking heavily along the time when we were broke. I mean we were just living paycheck to paycheck.

We're literally living on loans, you know what I mean?...

A lot of guys know my story, the way it started. We were getting these student loans because it was the way we were eating.

And then finally I was like, "Man, I gotta make some money...."

And so I started flipping real estate And there were some complexities with where I was living that weren't allowing how I was doing it. I was doing some double escrows and flipping it that way, it's tons of fun. Put out those street signs all over the place, had 300 people call me in a month and anyways, I was working my butt off. I've never really not.

I just keep moving and make mistakes of commission instead of omission, you know what I mean? so I was sitting back and I was thinking through and there are these times, I guess multiple times and I'm sure that if you really have been wanting this, you've had the same thought. And I guess I'm religious and I'd be kneeling down at night praying and I'm asking God like, "Why am I struggling so much? Like, why? Why am I struggling so much? How come I haven't made it yet? Right? How come I ...?"

Those are the questions I was asking and it took some internal maturing for me to sit back and realize that number one, that's a stupid question to ask. And number two, what was I doing about it? And I was active, I was in motion, I was learning like crazy. I hustled my butt off, went and joined the army so we could eat, you know.

And I had a ton of fun there and learned like crazy and a lot of self discovery for sure. I certainly enjoyed my time there. Glad to finally be out of it, but glad that I did it though. Anyway, I had this guy tell me about 10 years ago, I went on a mission for my church for about two years and you know, he's a guy, we call him the mission president and he's the guy over all of us and he always taught us this one thing.

And I had this come to my mind couple of weeks ago as somebody asked me, they were considering joining the Two Comma Club ex coaching program and it was at the Funnel Hacking Live event, if you know what I'm talking about, go buy your ticket for next year. Okay?

It's, it's one of the best investments you'll ever make...

That event solely has changed my life...

There's not a doubt in my mind. I've a marketing degree and four Funnel Hacking Live events, I can tell you I've learned way more doing that, than I have in the marketing degree.

Not that I'm not thankful for that either, but anyway. But I had this idea, this mission president, he reached out when I did a two year mission for my church. Because I'm talking about those guys were in the white tee shirt and ties with the name badges on bikes. I did that for two years when I was 20 years old. He always taught us that the questions invite revelation.

Now I understand that from a religious context, you can understand what he's teaching there, but I want to take that out of the religious context and let you know that that's still true regardless of any area of your life.

And so when I was sitting down and I was thinking the question, "Gosh, oh, why? Why is this not working?" You know, like, "Please God, how come I'm not making money here? Why are we struggling so bad? Why am I not making the cash? How come it's not coming in? I'm serving? I'm working hard?" It's funny, it's interesting, you know, hindsight 2020 And I look back and I'm like,

"Oh, it's because I wasn't doing this. I wasn't doing that. I wasn't doing this, I wasn't doing that." But one of the things that I realized though is that the questions invite revelation. And that is so true for every area of my life. And rather than sit back and think the question, "How come I'm not making it?"
Instead, I should totally have been asking the question,

"How do I sell this better?"...

You see what I'm saying? Totally different question, and the question affects the outcome. So you guys know why I like putting some dubstep on, taking some caffeine and stand in front of a whiteboard? It's because I'm standing up and most of my ideas will come during that because I'm asking a question....

But the quality of the question affects the quality of the answer and instead of me standing back, start asking yourself the questions that you're asking yourself. Become cognizant of what they are and step back and start saying to yourself, "What questions have I been asking myself?" And if you're like,

"Ah, I don't know why I haven't been effective in this game. How come I'm not making money here or there?"...

Those are valid questions, but is it the right one? You know what I mean? And so there was somebody I was chatting with right at the Funnel Hacking Live Event and there were like, one of the questions that they started asking was ...

I'm sure some other people do this. I know that they did. Right. And I'm not making fun of the individual at all. I just think it's an important lesson. And as I looked back, it's one of the soul things that I have focused on kind of almost subconsciously. Certain times consciously and other times subconsciously.

If I ask the right question, it exposes my brain to that kind of answer. Meaning, how do I sell this product better? How do I make my offer better?
How do i market this in a better way? How do I get it right? And when I start asking those kinds of questions, I will get different answers. Like Steven, look at what you're asking yourself and sit back and be like, "Am I asking a question of ...

Anyway, let me go back. I've already jumped around enough times. Let me go back to Funnel Hacking Live. Somebody is asking the question, "Oh man, Russell, it's $18,000 or $1,800 a month either or for this program." How many people sat back and thought, "Huh, I wonder if they would offer a discount." I had somebody reach out to me and ask me that about my program just a little bit ago. Many people do. "There's no payment plan?"

No, no there's not.

And here's the reason why, and this is exactly what I was trying to teach this person at Funnel Hacking Live. I was just trying to teach. Look, if I asked the question, "How do I get a discount on this? Or maybe I can collaborate with three or four other people and we'll all split the cost."

What are you immediately doing? You're sitting back and you're asking yourself how can I stay in a place of poverty instead of paying for premium. That's what you're doing. And one of the things that has changed my life, and I know I've said it like a billion times, but was changing the question. And instead of me asking the question, because I've always wanted to be part of Russel's inner circle and I'm so thankful to be part of it now.

I am honored to the hilt to be a part of it. But I asked myself the question, how can I afford this? Rather than, "I wonder if you would give me a discount on inner circle."

No, I even worked with him, next to him. I still vox him all the time, but it's not what I am doing. I'm not sitting back asking the question. Maybe he'll just let me in. Maybe he'll just let me get inside. Maybe I can get just this little, you know, this brotherly side, open door, straight into the inner circle. Maybe I can find some kind of discount. No. Are you freaking kidding me? No. What you do is you ask the question, instead of asking, "How can I get a discount?" First of all, take that question and burn it.

Second of all, ask the question, "How can I afford the most premium services on this planet?" Answer that question.

Change it up...

Do whatever it is that gets you in flow, a little Caffeine and dub step for me, right? Whatever gets you in flow. Go to a whiteboard or however it is you brainstorm.

I encourage you to write though, there's something to that. And write out the question, "How can I afford the most premium price ever? How can I afford that?" And when you answer that question, you will be surprised.

First off, nothing will come to your head for awhile, but do not move on. Let your head sit on the problem. Most people will not sit on the problem long enough to hear an answer. They won't, they won't. And instead they turn around and they start walking and go, "Oh, well I can't afford that. He didn't offer a discount. There was no payment plan."

If questions invite revelation I have used this countless times in my business you guys, it's not just over in the place of religion where I was taught, it applies to everything. And so I asked myself specific questions and I do not move on when it is uncomfortable because I don't know the answer. I let my head stay there and

I start asking instead and I start brainstorming, "Well maybe I could do this. No. Dang, that's not going to work. Maybe I could do this. No." And it's usually as I start to brainstorm, little ideas will come to my head like, "Wait a second, what if I did this?" And I follow that thread for a while and I follow it.

"No. This part won't work with that. But you know what? This first half does. Let me take that first half, now we're working with this first half of that answer. Okay now from this point, let me ask the question again. "How do I afford the most premium services on the planet?" Okay, now I got this far, cool. Let's brainstorm, let my head sit on the problem. It's uncomfortable. I don't know the answer. Gosh, I don't know the answer. What is this answer, God?"

And I'll sit there and I start thinking, and my head's going a million miles a minute. I'm finding the spot and then all of a sudden I start finding more the answer.

So people are asking too many questions that are the wrong questions. Just get cognizant of what those things are. So stop asking, how do I get a discount? How do I get a payment plan? How do I do this? And here's the reason why you ask the other question, how do I afford the most premium prices on this planet?

When you do that, what it forces you to do is you end up creating an asset that pays for the most premium services on this planet. So then when you actually are through experiencing that most premium experience, you are left with both the experience and the asset.

If I go the other way and I start asking the question, how do I get a discount? How do we get a discount? How do I get a discount? You find a way to get a discount because that's what you're asking.

You were looking for that answer, so you find it, but then when you're done with it, usually you experience a discounted experience. You have a discounted experience with the thing that you pay for and you're not left with an asset at the end of it. Change the way you're asking this. Look at a different direction.

Anyway, so that's exactly what I asked myself about a month ago.

I was like, "Hey, we've got this cash coming in. My funnels are doing well. I know what's wrong with them, I know I need to tweak certain things on them. How can I make the funnel better? How can I sell it better? How can I over-deliver? How can I get this in front of more people?"

Those are the questions that I asked myself, but then I started asking myself the question, "How do I get in Russell's inner circle like that?" And I told you guys a few episodes ago, I told you about this, right? And I ended up walking into this hotel room and this was the biggest thing on my mind, I was just, how can I give myself a raise today? And that was the question on my mind, and guess what? I answered the question because it was the question I have in my head, not "Will Russell just let me get grandfathered into the inner circle because I sat next to him?"

Stupid question.

Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question, got Straight A's in school. That's a stupid statement. That's not true at all.

There are stupid questions...

That's the question that you've taken no time to try and get the answer on your own. That's a stupid question. That's the definition of it. Understand and call yourself out if you've been asking stupid questions, change the question and you will get a different answer.

And it will be uncomfortable, especially if you've never done this before. And if you've been living your life in a way where it's following the patterns of poverty and you're sitting back and instead, how you know you're asking the question, "Why are things so expensive? People would spend that much money on a shirt, a pair of pants at the store?"

Oh my gosh, whatever it is, whatever your thing is, people would do this instead of asking that.I'm not saying you change your personality. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying change the freaking question.

Start asking questions of wealth and start asking questions of good business and offer creation and delivering for the customer. And speed of cash. So that is the question I'm asking myself now. When I was standing ... And this is the whole reason I'm doing this episode, when I was standing on stage at Funnel Hacking

Live and I was teaching and I'm in my zone. I love that. If there's nothing else I could do the rest of my life it would be to teach on stage is super fun. I feel like I'm really good at it and I practice it a lot and I get my flow and I help people in a way.

It's a lot of fun for me anyways, and had a lot of good results for other people with it too. And so I'm sitting there and I'm teaching on stage and before I got on there, Russell said, he told me that I should stand up and I should call my shot.

He said, "Dude, stand up and call your shot and say when you think this funnel that you built at the beginning of the year is actually going to get in the Two Comma Club." I was like, "You want to put a date on it?" And he's like, "Yeah, it's going to be awesome." And I was like, "Holy crap! Yes coach make it hard." So okay, "Publicly you want me to state this?" And he's like, "Yeah." I said, "Okay, all right." So what I did was I stood up and I taught my portion and you know, I loved it. Anyway, I am extremely proud of the way it went and I delivered it and it was awesome.

And I knew I had connected pieces for people. And then at the end of it, he wanted me to tell everyone what kind of the results were that I've been getting. And for the last month, I'm just being totally honest with you, I've been too obsessed with the question, "How do I develop these other assets?"

And so I haven't really been focusing as much on the Webinar. I'll call myself out and pull myself to the carpet there, call us up to the carpet...

But, I went in, as soon as I stood on stage and without realizing what month it is I publicly told everybody that I'm going to get my funnel into the two comma club for my second ward. I got a spot already on my wall for it that I was going to do by August 1st. I was like, "Oh my gosh."

After the event, I mean, literally just like a fewdays ago I was home, I didn't even think about it. Like, "Wait, August 1st, I told everyone that. What month is it? Oh my gosh. It's freaking April." Okay, April, May, June, July. I got four months.

And I started thinking through backwards, like, "Hey, okay, it's here where I am for that. From here we really are like another 800 grand on this thing, ish. That's like eight, nine grand a day. I was like ... Okay, that's a lot. I've never done that before. I've made eight grand in a day several times, many times. I made nine grand, 10 grand a day, 11 grand day. So, I've done that but consistently, that's a lot, you know, and I'm excited for it. And so that is the question I'm asking myself.

It is uncomfortable and I'm brainstorming. I brainstormed out four different ways that I'm going to be able to do that over the next four months and I only need one of them to hit to really get it. There are four Hail Marys. I'm super excited about it but I got to pull nine grand a freaking day in four months. I mean every day for the next four months to hit it.

So I'm going to kill myself trying to get it. I think I can. And in my head is asking that question, how do I make nine grand a day, which basically for me means I need to be pitching anywhere from, you know, 80 to 90 people a day, which means they need to be getting about 300 registrants per day, I spend about $1,500 a day in ads, which is totally do-able.

So that's just one method. I was thinking back like, just reversing, doing all the numbers. The problem is that when people ask the question, they don't do enough to try and answer the question on their own, out of their own head.

New ideas don't come until you have literally exhausted all the current ideas you have. So as you're sitting there and you're on your whiteboard or whatever, I drastically encourage y'all have one, and write stuff by hand not just on digitally. That's something.

Anyway, I don't know why, but I'm very convinced that, that is far more effective than just doing things digitally all the time for everything. I got legal pads all over the place here, but anyway, I feel like the reason people will screw this up and this method up is because they'll sit back and they'll ask the question and then do nothing to try and solve it on their own. I got books all over the place. I'm reading, I'm grabbing it. "Oh, this looks like I might have some answers for that."
"Boom. I just did that this morning I'm reading some pieces of books for that." Oh, cool.

Okay. Next one, boom, and I'm reading for purpose. I'm reading with the intent. I'm studying, I'm listening, I'm learning for the intent of answering the question. How do I do nine K a day? And that is what I have been focusing on. So, that's the question on my head. It is uncomfortable.

I'm excited. It is a growing one...

Regardless if I hit it, I know that the outcome will be better processes, better performance for myself, discovering new ways to sell things that probably people in the market aren't doing. Cash. The byproduct is that I can't think of a thing that's going to be negative as I try and solve this problem. So that's what I'm trying to say.

Upgrade your problem, upgrade your question and ask the right ones. Make sure the questions you're asking are questions of wealth, not poverty. Make sure that you're trying to find ways like literally, that's what I'm saying before.

I was like, "How can I afford Russell's inner circle stuff? Guys, now I went and I created an asset in the last month. It pays me like at least 15 to $30,000 a month from now besides my funnel. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Right? Crazy. Crazy. I'm so excited.

That's nuts...

I removed my cost of goods for this funnel there. I don't take cash. And anyway, that's a whole different thing. And I went and I have already talked about that, but that's what I asked myself. So that's what I answered. And so now it's time for me to change the question and go focus on that and I'm excited to do so.

So anyway, that was an intense episode. Hey guys, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Again, this is my ... I would love again to get some reviews from you guys on iTunes. That would be super helpful and if you've had any piece of nuggets or any nugget or whatever or something like that, that's really helped you, I would love to hear about it.

Whether if it's a personally or that's what you put in the review on iTunes. Or, if you just tell someone else even. I really appreciate that. I am very serious about what I'm doing here, but it's a ton of fun and really been enjoying this ride with you guys. So, anyways, thank you so much.

I appreciate it. I will continue to document both my processes and methods and why I'm doing what I'm doing as I move down this path. So anyways guys, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I will talk to you later.

Thanks for listening. Please remember to rate and subscribe. Hey, you want me to speak at your next event or mastermind? Let me know what I can share. It will be most valuable by going to stevejlarsen.com and book my time now.