SFR 185: Talent Is NOT Enough...

Boom, what's going on everyone?  It's Steve Larsen, and today I'm gonna talk to you guys about talent.

 

I've 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?

 

Hey, I'm excited for this episode - really excited about it!

 

When I go through, and I start thinking about different episodes, I write down a whole bunch of different ideas.  Then, funnily enough, a lot of them start combining. This one's gonna be 3 different episodes combined - I just wanna say real fast what it really is...

 

I was mowing the lawn a bit ago... and I some people have said like, "Don't ever mow your own lawn. You should never fold your own laundry. You should never..."

 

And I get what they're saying, but for me, that's the time when I am listening to a lot of podcasts. I'm listening to books. I'm listening to audio stuff - most the time...

 

Sometimes I just listen to music and chill out - it depends what's been going on.  But this particular time was only maybe six weeks ago? I mean it wasn't that long ago...

 

I was mowing the lawn, and I was thinking. I was thinking a lot about what this guy was saying... I don't remember what exactly I was listening to, but I remember the idea came in, which is the important part...

 

I stopped, and I was like. "Oh, my gosh, I am where I am because of sheer talent, not positioning." Isn't that interesting? I am where I am because of sheer talent not because of positioning.

 

I was like that's really fascinating!

 

It might sound like I'm showboating a little bit, but I'm good funnel builder, okay? I'm really good at building offers.

 

What I realized is that I've done fantastic jobs at positioning products, positioning a business - but not positioning me. And that's the thing I've been seeking the most this year since I left Clickfunnels. I've been trying to figure out the best place to position myself in the ecosystem that I'm in. And that's just as important as your talent itself.

 

I've been thinking about this like crazy - it's been the biggest question. I was at a Mastermind, and I asked a question like, “I'm trying to figure out what I do to serve the market?” And they misunderstood what I was saying.

 

I'm not trying to figure out "WHAT I do to serve the market?" - I know what that is - I've been trying to figure out the best place to position myself the market? The best place to go and sit inside of it.

 

Recently, it was actually was last week as I'm recording this, anyway (I batch my content, right I drink my own Kool-Aid)...

 

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to go and do some consulting for Trey Lewellen - so super cool, guys! I got to go, and this was super nuts for me, you guys.

 

I was going out and listening to Trey Lewellen's stuff like way before ever working for Russell or being at ClickFunnels.

 

So to go full circle, and then be invited to go in and consult on webinars, like that was such an incredible honor.

 

We were at the Dream 100 Event, and Trey was... (it's gonna sound like I'm showboating, but this is me trying to position myself, okay?)

 

Trey was told that I'm "the best at webinars" - which was super nice. It was incredibly nice of him.

 

Anyway, he came straight to me. Right there in the room, he said, "Can I get you to come to my webinar?" I said, "Sure!" And I flew out there and went to his house.

 

The whole way there I was like. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." You know! I'm watching the current webinar like crazy - it was actually for his girlfriend Jennifer, she was awesome.

 

I was going in and watching this webinar, watching the webinar, watching the webinar.

 

When you spend that much time on a craft, it's really easy to see where a ball might be being dropped, and that was no different here. I immediately saw what the issue was, and it was cool to be able to go in and do my consulting thing.

 

When I do consulting for somebody... like I did it for an insurance company a little while ago it, was like 12 hours straight - some people need that, some people don't need as much as that...

 

Trey Lewellen's obviously a rockstar already - so there were just some finer points as far as a webinar gets delivered. It was really really cool to be able to go in and help him and help what they were doing. It was only six hours, but it's still a long time, right?

 

It's just me straight, and a whiteboard like teaching and pulling things out of him into certain frameworks that I know sell well. It was really interesting, and it was cool because afterwards, it was very honoring... If anyone's like "Stephen, you're showboating." Okay, whatever...

 

I wanna share with you guys the lessons I'm learning along the journey, that's part of this podcast. So I'm documenting the journey right now - so this is me documenting...

 

Trey and his girlfriend took me back to their house, and we grabbed pizza and hung out around this firepit in their backyard. Beautiful house! Holy crap nice house! I know you'd expect that obviously. But it was a crazy, super nice house. Oh my gosh!

 

Anyway, so we're sitting there, and he said, "You know what's interesting?..."

 

I'm trying to teach you guys the lessons I've been learning along the way, cause I got something specific I'm going for. Now think in terms of what I have just said before, right: "I am where I am because of sheer talent and not positioning," 'kay?

 

So we're sitting there around the fireplace in the backyard, and he says, "Dude you know what's interesting about what you do? There's literally not a business in this world that does not need what you do! This whole offer creation thing, it's ridiculous. I didn't know that's what you did. That was amazing. That was amazing!"

 

I was like, “Thanks, dude, that means a lot."

 

So I brought up the topic, I said, "The thing I've been focusing on, the thing I've been trying to figure out is which vehicle delivers what I do the best to the market?"

 

Cause you guys know I can get a bit technical on these podcast episodes, this is just my free stuff right - the real stuff that I do, you know... I tell pretty much everything, but I can't tell some things on a podcast. In fact, there's a lot I can't tell and its part of the reason why I'm doing this episode.

 

I'm gonna share with you guys what the plan is moving forward.

 

I went to this Mastermind one time, this was years ago... I was sitting in the audience looking at all the people that were going on stage, and this is not to judge anybody, this was years ago. I don't want anybody to think like, "Was he talking about me?"

 

But I sat there, and I was looking at the people on stage, and I realized, "That guy has no idea why he's making money." The next person would get up, and I'd think, "That lady has literally no clue on why her customers follow her, huh?" We all see that in each other's businesses.

 

That's one of the benefits of a Mastermind, right! You go to those things so that you can have other people who are also experienced in the same realm-ish come in and show you like, "Hey, what if you tried this, and this, and this and this?"

 

Masterminds don't work if people bring pride into it: "Well, of course, I knew that!" You know that doesn't work that way!

 

With Trey, he and I were teaching each other. If we both played the pride game neither one of us would have learned from each other, and that's what's cool about it.

 

And what's fascinating is I started realizing like, "My gosh, the funnel building game I set up to try and be the best at it." Am I? Of course not, I don't know? I'm not, okay... I've built a lot of them...

 

But what's fascinating is, remember: so I was mowing the lawn, and I realized "My gosh I am where I am because of talent not because of positioning," and then I was remembering back to that Mastermind: "Holy crap a lot of these people are where they are because of positioning, not talent." And I was, "Whoa! Right, I gotta get more serious on where I'm positioning myself."

 

And some of you guys might be laughing at that, but like I've always just had a mindset to provide sickening value, be incredibly valuable, and the money follows. And that's so true. That's how I've run everything in my business.

 

So what I've been doing what I've been doing is designing out  (maybe like three months ago I first started actually writing it), and I have it written out on my whiteboard my actual value ladder. Right over there, okay!

 

It's the value ladder that I'm building. It's the value ladder that I'm going for now. I'm not just funnel hacking somebody's product, I'm not just funnel hacking somebody's market - I'm funnel hacking somebody's business.

 

And if a business is just a series of systems right, I gotta funnel hack the business itself also. Meaning how do they fulfill on what they've promised.

 

If you look at this, some of you guys are gonna be like, "Well, duh Stephen, I've seen that before in the past." And I get that.

 

But if you look the most successful E-com businesses that are out there have a very similar business model. Their products are similar, what's different is the message - but the business model is very similar.

 

Supplements - the business model of a supplement business, the funnel, the business part of it, the marketing of it, the messaging of it, the offer of it - they're very similar.

 

You're not just funnel hacking a product, you're not just funnel hacking a message - but the business itself, the systems how you actually fulfill on it, how you support it right - those are all very similar as well.

 

And so I was thinking through like, that's really what's been going through my head, "What model?" and I've been very cognoscente of this question for the last like, I dunno like probably four-five months now.

 

"Which model fulfills what I do best for a market?"

 

And so what I've been doing is going through and figuring out what that is, and I've been drawing it. I've been drawing the value ladder.

 

Now way back in the day when I learned what the value ladder was, I started teaching it to other people because the concept is amazing. It was far more effective than these 30 days business plans I supposed to write for these professors or real businesses that I was asking for money from.

 

I've done that, it sucks! I much prefer a value ladder. The issue that I've noticed...

 

I was on stage one day teaching about value ladders. This guy stands up and goes "Well, I've drawn this value ladder, and I already know what this product is gonna be on this step, and I know what this product is gonna be on this step, but I don't know what the product is gonna be on this step?"

 

And I said, "I don't think you need to know what that is yet, right? A lot of your markets can help you define what that is." And he was like, "But I can't start my business until I have a complete value ladder." I was like, "Man that's such garbage, that's not true!"

 

The issue, right value ladders - they're amazing, they're incredible, but they can also be this huge hindrance when people put so much stock into them. When people take no input from their market at all. That's when value ladders become a crippling event.

 

So I always start a value ladder off by building in the middle of the value ladder - the mid-tier products.  Then I usually like to go up. I like to go to the expensive side, and then after that, I create the downside.

 

Now the very bottom, the cheap stuff for me, I always create it last. That's usually how I do it.

 

So you have to understand what I've been doing is...

 

Some people have been asking me, "Stephen, so what have you really been doing for the last while since you left Clickfunnels?"  Well running my other business - which has been doing fantastic. We'll put a dollar in ads we get two dollars back out, and it's been awesome. It's been so cool.

 

First of all been running that business, been building the value ladder products in funnels for their respective places, I've been doing a lot of that stuff, but what I've also really been doing though is starting to see and look where I should position me, not just my business, in the ecosystem of the funnel world.

What would be the stupidest thing for me to go do right now? Uh, try to be the funnel guy, right? Man, Russell's the funnel guy. He popularized that entire concept. Why would I ever try to be the funnel guy? I'm not gonna be the funnel guy. That's dumb!

 

Even though I built a bunch of them, do you see how that's stupid positioning for me to go try and do that? Does that make sense?

 

That's what I'm trying to help people understand and see, they're like "Stephen, go be the funnel guy," and I'm like, "No, that's dumb! I'm not gonna be the funnel guy. There already is an amazing funnel guy."

 

I'm not gonna be the same guy, That's stupid, right! I literally would be doing the exact... literally the exact definition of fighting for scraps." Plus I'm not gonna try and be the funnel guy. Anyway, I'm not gonna do that.

 

So what I've been trying to do is figure out which category to go develop, for me to step in to?  And I think I know what the answer is. I'm not gonna just drop that here right now. I want you guys to experience it with me while I create it.

 

For those of you guys who have been in my world for a little bit and you've been a part of these different things that I've been doing, you're gonna start watching me actually build this thing out. It's what I've been doing, and it's what been going on behind the scenes.

 

So the whole point this episode is I'm just trying to help you understand that sheer talent is not the thing that gets you paid, right! It's not. It can...

 

It's also a long road; there's also a lot of pros that come with it. A lot of awesome pros that come with that. You can go and get freakishly good at the actual thing, and people get to know you for that, and you can charge money for it. There's a lot of pros at becoming amazing and paid - just because you're good.

 

But that's not the reason why you can continue to get paid.

 

It's not actually the reason you get paid in general either. You can go get paid, but the con, the con of trying to be the best is that it takes for freaking ever, right! It takes a long time.

 

I've been doing this game for, I think it's about five years now, specifically this kind of thing - five years now. The first thing I ever built on the internet was about five years ago, a little more than that. I don't think we had my first kid yet, so it was a little more than five years ago.

 

If you're like, "Man, Stephen, I don't wanna go spend five years." That's great, then that's fine you don't have to.

 

Instead of being the best, be the first - that's what Seth Godin teaches. And I absolutely love that you can be the best, or you can be the first. Those are the only options: you can be the best or the first.

 

What I teach, teaches you how to do both you can actually do both of them together.

 

...but what I realize is, "Oh my gosh, I gotta position me a little bit more." So what I've been doing is positioning myself as the offer creation guy.

 

I just got another testimonial from a guy. I'm so excited about it. It was so cool. This guy reached out, and he said, "Hey, I got your product, super awesome, and I made $30,000 my first stage pitch." I was like, "What's up!"

 

Got another one last week, I think it was last week - Yeah. She wrote in, and she goes, "What's up, I sold over 50% of the room on my very first event. Thank you so much for that tactic and what you taught, that's what I did." I was like, "What's up, okay!"

 

It doesn't matter what you're selling. It doesn't matter about the product. It doesn't matter if you do it from a stage, or if it's on an e-book. It doesn't matter right if its a physical thing, or if its a supplement. It can be B2B or retail. It's the same principles throughout.

 

It really just meant a lot to me. And more and more it's been like, "Oh my gosh, this is the place I gotta go." So that's the whole point of this episode. I'm trying to figure out how to position myself and it's a moving, slightly moving target. I kinda know where it is, and as I move, it gets more clear.

 

If it sit back, and it's the exact same thing with anything in life, if I sit back, and I'm like, "oh, I just don't know what it is yet, so I haven't moved yet," nothing appears that way for me.

 

And so I've been actively, over this whole year, pursuing what that kind of is - and it's become more and more and more clear, and more and more and more open. I'm like, "Holy crap this is it!"

 

I love the book Innovator's Dilemma; there's a paragraph in there that is freaking awesome. He basically says that suppliers and customers must discover new markets together. That's what I'm doing!

 

That's why I haven't been like, "That's it!" Because I've been discovering what it is that people really need with the customer - which means I need to be with the customer. Which means I need to be creating products and being with the customer, you know what I mean?

 

So for those of you guys that are coming out to the OfferMind which is in a few weeks here, you're gonna watch me - that is what I'm doing. I know exactly what I'm teaching. I know exactly what you guys need to hear, but I'm doing it...

 

I'm trying to see how to deliver it in a way where I can see in your eyes, "Whoa!" That "A-ha, oh my gosh, wow." When I can get that feeling of what I just taught, you get that honor feeling, "Whoa."

 

Regardless of what you think about whoever the president of the US is, or regardless if you think whatever this leader, that leader, that whatever... if they walked in the room, you'd still be like, "Whoa, that's so-and-so. Whoa!" Like right, I need that emotion when you see what I'm teaching.

 

And when I've got that emotion, when you see what I'm teaching then I can put it in a book, does that make sense?

 

I know the concepts.

 

So people have asked me,  "Stephen, how come you haven't written a book on it yet?”  It's 'cause it's not just about the concepts. I gotta make sure that you ingest them. I gotta make sure the way I teach them... I gotta make sure the stories that I'm telling to convey the concepts are actually good.

 

There's no other way for me to get good at knowing what those are without constantly teaching it. Just bam, teach it, teach it, teach it, teach it, teach it, right! Over and over and over.

 

I've become more and more clear as I've done so. Then it's good for book, because a lot of what I say comes across right with my body language.

 

I don't have that luxury in a book, which means it needs to be ultra clear, you know what I mean? That's the reason why.

 

So if you watch what I'm doing in OfferMind... What's the purpose of OfferMind? Now I'll let you answer that. What's the purpose of things down below that - that'll help me clarify and figure out more of what's in the books right. That'll help me clarify, and it's so interesting.

 

There's a book, it's by, technically it says Ryan Deiss, but really it's Perry Belcher. It's a book called The Science of, no no. I'm thinking of the science sign one. I'm thinking about my group. It's called the Secret Selling System.

 

If you listen to the event that created the Secret Selling System. It's insane - the depth that you get from the event is way more - it's like way more.

 

It's like when people go, "Well I watched the movie, and then I went and read the book, the book was way better." The book's always gonna be better because your imagination gets to play. The movie is just one person's interpretation of what's going on in the book.

 

Exact same thing when a book gets created from an event; the way it was written was one person's interpretation of what happened at the event, you know what I mean?

 

The amount of the times something gets translated, like purposes and emotion, things get lost, right!

 

And so what I'm doing and the reason I'm saying all this stuff to you guys and I'll end this now, but if you guys read this book, The 30 Days book -You Suddenly Lose Everything, What Do You Do to get it back From Day One to 30?  What's fascinating about this is you will notice the patterns of creation that are actually shown inside this book right, and if you go in and start reading this thing you'll notice there's a pattern of creation.

 

There's a pattern of what to create when at what points, and that's what I've been doing, trying to figure out how to develop what I'm doing, and where to position me so that the positioning is what creates value, not just my talent. I want the talent too also, but it was that thing that I realized, and that was what Trey was telling me.

 

That's what I realized when I was mowing the lawn. It's what I realized when I was watching all these people at different Masterminds years ago, I was like "Huh, they're there because they positioned themselves in this place and then they got good."

 

I was like, "Hmm, I am where I am because I got good, and then I'm trying to figure out where to position what I do." You need both, talent is not enough in anything.

 

Talent is not enough, you still gotta position yourself right - and so that's what I've been doing a lot. And I just wanna get you to be thinking about that.

 

So anyway, hopefully, that's helpful to you? Hopefully, you like this episode? It's something really powerful to be thinking about.

 

I want you guys to be purposeful about how you create where you're positioned. That's really what I talk about when I talk about market design or category design, same thing.

 

Anyway, guys thanks so much, hope you guys enjoyed the episode today if you guys liked it, please share, I really appreciate it. The minutes on YouTube have been insane. The reviews on iTunes have been incredible, and I just thank you guys a lot, that really means a lot to me - it actually motivates me a lot.

 

So anyways I appreciate it a lot -talk to you guys later, bye.

 

Aww yeah!

 

Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone to opt in, right?

 

So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins; when they work, when they don't work.

 

If you want access to that members area - where you can watch those replays - just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account now.