Boom! What's goin' on everyone?
It's Steve Larsen. This is Sales Funnel Radio, and today I'm gonna teach you guys about cash causing frameworks.
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.
Whazzup, guys? I'm excited for today. This is an episode I ripped from a Facebook live. I did it off the whim, but it ended up really, really awesome.
I was just doing it to the group, The Science of Selling Online - if you're not part of that group, it's a free group. It's where I just kind of can geek out a lot of times. If you like this stuff, there's more of that on that group.
So, anyway, I went live, I wanted people to understand...
A lot of people ask me things like, "Well, Stephen, how do you know this is gonna work?"
Or "Stephen, it seems you're able to know a little bit, (not that you can predict the future, and I'm never, you know) like you understand what the numbers would mostly be and where kind of success will kind of come out of before you go do it?"
And I'm like, "Well, yea, it's 'cause I'm just following the framework."
And so, what I wanna do is just riff a little bit here, so you guys understand. I made the decision early on. I remember kind of where I was...
There was a lot of colleagues of mine in college that were studying different areas, you know, like, "I'm gonna study marketing or study this, or study that, or study supply chain or systems, or whatever." And I remember thinking to myself, I wrote this down guys, this was an actual goal of mine five, six years ago. I wanted to learn how to be a consultant to small businesses.
I wanted to start businesses and sell businesses.
Guys, it is hilarious to be that I'm doing that now, which is crazy. And I realized though that the talent and the skill that I wanted to learn was I wanted to learn how to make it rain in a company. And that's what this episode is about. That's what this episode is gonna teach you.
There's a very specific method that I have used to do that, okay. And I know what it is. It has not been an accident, okay. I did a lot of making accidents and mistakes in areas - it's not that I don't anymore, but, man, I know why it's working. This episode will teach you why that is. It's one of the biggest gifts I can give you. Thank you so much for being a follower.
Let's cut over to that now. If you guys did like it, again, please rate and subscribe. That really means a lot to me. I love reading those ratings. It actually makes my day. It means a lot.
Anyways, guys, thanks so much.
Hopefully, you'll enjoy this episode. This is life-changing stuff right here, and I hope that you do what I did, take it seriously and write down what it is you wanna do.
I wanted to learn how to make it rain in a company. I wrote it down, and you have to do that part of it. Anyways, this is how it all happened. Thanks, let's cut over.
What's up, my friends, how you guys doin'? If you guys are just barely gettin' on, I haven't done Facebook live in the group here for a little bit. We have grown since I last went on from like 2,200 members, we're almost at 4,000. It's crazy.
So, welcome and real quick, I just wanna teach you guys some cool stuff on why my stuff works so well and why I can see other people's doesn't. I'm just gonna be honest about it, okay. That's cool? Give me a little hashtag replay though if you guys are brand new in here and you guys are just barely getting in.
If you guys are live though, welcome, welcome. What's up? Just chillin' to this song again, many I freakin' love it. Alright, here we go.
Hey guys so I just, I've been doing a lot of, been doing a lot of Facebook lives. I've been doing a lot of training in general. Yesterday I did two back to back webinars. It was two back to back webinars in ClickFunnels - which is a ton of energy...
If you've never done that; it's hard to just one, and if you do them right, I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna sound gross, but I'm like sweating, I'm exhausted, with just on one. Two of them back to back is murder. Absolute murder.
I was talkin' to one of my friends, Dave Lindenbaum. It's funny, he's like, "Yeah, two suck." He's like, "I've done three, but I would not wish that on my worst enemy. You are so wrecked by the end."
I did two back to back webinars yesterday, and the one Funnel Away challenge. I was spent. I was absolutely spent by the time I went to sleep. It was like 1 a.m.
Anyway, so I, guys real quick I just wanted to walk through a principle here, and I know it's the reason why I'm succeeding in this stuff. And this might sound weird for me to say that, might sound weird for me to go ahead and teach it, but anyway...
Is it cool if I go through that a little bit? We all got thick skin here. I can just say what needs to be said. Is that alright? You guys cool with that? Cause I, I wanna teach a few things here.
There's a few patterns for why I know my stuff is working and working very, very well. And I think there's a few ways, a few reasons. Some of it comes from the internal, and the way I approach myself on this stuff.
First of all, can you guys hear me okay? You guys got me alright here? Yeah, okay, Dan said "Cool. Okay just say it."
Alright, there's a few things for how I approach things individually in my own mentality and my mindset with this stuff. However, there's a few things though that for the way I approach the business.
I look at myself, and I look at the business as two separate things. I mean really, we're very similar. Who's that rapper that said, "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man." Who? I can't remember who the rapper is that said that. But I look at myself that way a little bit. Like, I am the business, man, rather than a businessman. (It's gonna kill me. I can't remember who that was.)
In my business, I compete on a lot of differences. I compete on differences.
I compete with strengths. Personally, when it comes to me though, as the attractive character, I compete with mostly just differences, not so much strengths.
Someone's always better, faster, stronger, than me personally. Someone's always quicker. Someone's always a better writer. So I don't compete with strengths when it comes to my personality, I really compete with differences.
When it comes to the business though, it really is mostly just strengths. When it comes to offers, it's back to differences though. I don't know if that makes any sense at all what I'm saying there, but there's a relationship there though, you guys gotta get used to.
One of the reasons why my stuff does well and one of the reasons why my stuff has accelerated so quickly is because there's a few different principles that I follow:
Guys, I'm the worst cook ever, but if I'm gonna bake a cake, how do you bake a cake? Just tell me right now, what are some of the things that you use to go bake a cake? How do you go do that? What are some of the things that I do? What's the process? How do I bake the actual cake? How do I put it together?
Someone said it's, someone said Jay-Z, someone said Kayne, so I don't know, it's one of those two.
Right, how do I bake a cake? I'm gonna get flour, I'm gonna get sugar, I'm gonna get eggs, that's as far as I know. There's probably some chocolate in there somewhere... I really have no idea how to bake a cake, but there's a way to do it, right.
There's a process to baking a cake. There's a process of putting it in the oven for how long it's gonna be in there. There's a process behind that.
How am I gonna get good at a sport? I'm looking at Brazilian jiu-jitsu right now. I really wanna fight Russell. He and I wanna roll, and I'm stoked about it. So I'm gonna go take jiu-jitsu for the next year, and then I'm gonna try and choke him out... and he's gonna try and choke me out. It'll be fun. But there's a process for that. There's a process to learn that kind of sport and discipline.
There's a process for me to go learn how to freakin' walk. There's a process for me to learn how to be on the internet. And when you understand that! People are like "Oh yeah, I get it." But that's not the way people act.
When I look on the internet, and I see what people are doing on the internet, most the time they're just doing stuff, and that's better than doing nothing, but they're not adhering to any kind of framework. There's no pattern in what they're following. There's not a frame, and there's no system, there's no format or formula. They're just kinda doing stuff.
Because of that, it's really easy for me to look at and be like, "Oh yeah, that's why you're failing."
I don't mean that in a negative way. That's not negative at all; it's just the truth. Frameworks are what save you in this game. Frameworks are what save you in anything in life.
Funny enough, I call it art versus science - there's more science to this game then there is art - which should be very relieving for you to hear. There is more science than art. Which means I don't need to be as much of a creative genius as much as I do just learning some of the frameworks that make success happen. And I'm not just talking mentality stuff.
I have a hard time with that sometimes. When I say mindset training, that's such an overused term. It gets fluffy, and I don't like it. But like, learn the framework. Learn the process, learn how to go and actually...
If I'm gonna do a webinar, if I'm gonna make an eBook, if I'm gonna write something, if I'm gonna do that, if I'm gonna be an Olympic skier, if I'm gonna go and I'm gonna learn how to ride a bike... anything in life has a pattern for success. It's like 80% framework, 20% art - which is awesome. It was so relieving when I finally realized and understood that.
So what I'm looking for when I go funnel hack somebody, what I'm looking for when I go and I'm looking at an influencer and I'm seeing how they're behaving.
I can close my eyes and I see. This is why I can speak without notes, because in my mind, in my brain, I can close my eyes and I can follow a framework inside of my head, and I know the next step.
Which means the decision making power of "What do I say next?" is kind of gone. I just know that now I need to be talking about this next thing and now what's coming up. I know, "Now I need some testimonials, I've told enough stories.Let me just dig back into my bag of stories. Which story would fit as a testimonial for that scenario best? Bam, that one! Insert here.”
Now, what's next? "Okay, let's go call to action, let's go here." In my head, I'm just following frameworks. That's the secret.
When I'm building a funnel, it's the same process every freaking time regardless of product, price, industry. It doesn't matter, it's the same process, and that's what people get stuck up on.
I do a lot of coaching. I've already coached today for three hours I think. Yeah, I do a lot coaching, and I'm about to go on for another hour and a half here, soon. Probably about 20 minutes. And what's frustrating for me is when somebody thinks that they are an exception to that rule. YOU ARE NOT! You are not! Okay?
And what happens when somebody believes they're an exception to the rule, what I've noticed, is that they don't believe that it's 80% framework, 20% art. That's why this is the Science of Selling Online - I explicitly took out the term Art - because it's more science than art.
It's a little bit of creativity and your own flare but it's not the majority. And when somebody thinks it's the majority, that's when they fail.
'When I'm funnel hacking somebody, I'm not just funnel hacking what products are they selling and how are they selling them? I'm looking to see the framework that they introduced the product to the market with. I'm looking for the framework:
What's the pattern? What's the formula? What's the step by step by step? Do this, then this, then this, then this - then add a little bit of flare of your own at the end.
It's so relieving to understand that and it's so relieving to feel and know and understand that because it means I don't have to be what college was trying to teach me to be. It's the exact opposite. I don't need to be a creative genius to have a lifestyle and success off of the internet or any business in general.
I don't need to be a creative genius. I don't need to make something brand new, completely prolific, something that nobody's ever seen before to make money. That's not true. That's the biggest fallacy ever in the game, and that's been the weirdest thing for me to realize.
Hindsight's 20 20, right? But forever, as I looked backwards, I'd be like "Oh man, and I'm starting to see those patterns." Forever the issue was, I walked around for years, my friends, trying to answer the question, "What product should I sell?" - When all along the market was trying to tell me what it wanted me to sell it. That's all I'm tryna figure out all the time.
So when I'm funnel hacking somebody and I'm lookin' at that red ocean, I'm steppin' back and sayin' "Oh, interesting." What I'm doing is I'm trying to see what product the market wants me to give it. I don't even have to have that answer. I don't even have to know what the product is. I don't even have to know.
Guys, I was the number one affiliate for this book, and a lot of it was because of that offer that I gave you guys. I didn't know what the offer was gonna be when I started selling it. You all gave me the answer.
Did you just hear what I said?
I sold 375 books, you all gave me the answer. We decided together what it is that you wanted to include in the offer when you bought this book through my link. I just gave it back to you.
The same principle is true for your own products, not just affiliate stuff, not just for your coach, not just for your info products, I don't care.
There is such a smaller amount of art and creative genius in this game than people realize. So what you need to get good at is learning to be attentive and see the patterns.
The reason I got to be a good funnel builder and so fast at ClickFunnels is because I can close my eyes, and in my head, I see the framework for the perfect webinar funnel.
I see all the elements in a perfect webinar script. In my head, I can see the framework of an awesome, epic upsell video. I know the framework in that script. It's a framework. I don't have to come up with what to say, I just know I need to have elements that talk about that, that, that, that, that, that, that... Plug it in, play, bam, done! You guys gettin' this? It's not just to trial close, I'm actually asking.
'Cause what I want you to understand is that it is the Science of Selling Online - which is the name of the group - and it's the name for a reason:
It was gonna be The Science and Art of Selling Online, but I took out Art because the game's easier than you might be thinking it is. It is easier than you think it is!
It took me like three years, and 17 business tries to understand that - because everybody in college, all the books, all these gurus, and all the people around, a lot of them...
Not all of them, there were one or two particularly who were not, and they were teaching me the correct way to do it and when they were teaching me to use the market to gather the data on what to sell rather than tryin' to come up with it on my own...
There was nothing like, "No input, zero, zero, zero, zero." Like I could not come up with something. I was like "I'm not really a creative genius kinda guy." Which might shock a lot of you guys. Like "Hey Stephen, you totally are. You're this crazy creative guy." I'm not! I'm following a pattern, that's it.
So I know that there's a few products coming out here soon that I'm excited to get out to you guys. There's a few products coming out that I haven't announced yet that I'm really pumped about... but I am using the market and I'm asking things in a way to start slowly pulling out and harvesting, "that's what they want, that's what they want, that's what they want" and you are literally building the very offer that I hope to give back to you.
Now I'm gonna go make the product obviously, and the product's gonna be freaking epic, but as far as what it is, you should not be doing a lot of that deep dive work on your own. In fact, it's better if you don't. It's way better if you don't. It's far better if you don't.
And the reason is, is because you don't fill your own wallet. I've said that multiple times, but like your opinion doesn't matter. You're not the one buying your thing. So if you're like, "Oh Stephen I don't know if I like that product yet?" You're not the one buying it! You don't fill your own wallet. So you gotta get outta your head and be like, "Alright, fine, what do they want? What does the market want? What is it that they're asking? Give that - learn what that is? What are they asking? What are they telling me that they want?”
Guys, the game gets so easy when you realize that it's just about learning the frameworks.
So if there's some piece of advise I could give, besides that, it would be this:
Choose frameworks, choose models to go learn that result in cash as a rule not an exception.
Did you hear what I just said?
I am not interested in learning and this is the other reason why I've been doing so well with stuff is because I don't want to learn frameworks and rules and science of things where I am an exception to the rule and that's what causes money.
It's the reason why I don't go learn Facebook ads, guys. Because for me to learn the framework to make a successful Facebook ad, I could go learn it, I know I could, I know I could be really good at it, okay. But I don't go study that personally, and yeah it might be your thing, which is great, but I don't because there are sometimes these little tricks I feel like I have to go play in order to make it work super well, I don't wanna learn the tricks.
I wanna learn the rules that result in cash not exceptions to the rule that result in cash. So go learn frameworks.
That's the reason why I obsess over webinars so much.
As a rule, if I do this and I tell an origin story and I come up with a good hook and I got the origin story which is a great intro, then I got three secrets which attack your vehicle, internal and external related false beliefs and I go through and I have some testimonials there.
Then I go through stack slide where I present the actual offer. Then I go through closes where I tell reasons why you should act now and I go through and I put that in a thing called a webinar funnel...
As a rule, it typically results in cash and because of the numbers and because the way it works out, they're very easy to make profitable.
When I was working at ClickFunnels, I watched Russell, I was like, "Huh..." We launched things so quickly there. I started asking the question, "That wasn't even like done yet. How come that worked? Huh, that actually didn't look visually that good yet, why did he make a million dollars in three weeks on that? Interesting. Why is it that he had 8,000 options on that page, half of it's broken, how come it still worked and it was with Facebook ads and people who probably didn't even really know who he is that much. How did that work over there?"
It's because he has frameworks in his head that result in cash as a rule not an exception to a rule.
I do NOT learn frameworks where I have to have an exception to a rule in order to make money.
Too many times people are tryna look for the flash in the pan, the little thing that is cool... but it's fleeting and it leaves. And that's why it doesn't work ...cause you spend all this time... right. Those things work as like little tiny add-ons when you already know the base thing that causes money. Is this making sense?
When you learn that rule and that framework to the rule. When you learn the system; the formula that causes cash rather than the exception to the rule that causes cash.
Right, the only time where I can learn that is when I already have this base down. When I got that 80% down. Then I can go learn that little 20% real fast, right take fast and quick money off the top. Then I can take fast and quick money right off the top and then it gets super easy, super, super easy.
So anyways, I'm really stoked about this. I hope you guys understand what I'm tryna get across here:
Stop learning flash in the pan stuff.
Stop learning things where it doesn't result in cash as a rule.
I don't study things that are like, how should I say this? I study:
>Becoming an attractive character.
>Offer creation.
>Sales itself.
>The psychology of sales.
The internet could die tomorrow and I know I'm gonna be okay because of the framework about sales that I know that's in my head.
I know that someone could put me on a stage right now and I will over deliver and I will probably sell more than everybody else that's on there who's been selling for a long time but doesn't have a framework and hasn't been studying this.
Those are bold claims and I totally get it and I understand that. You have to understand the reason why is because of the framework I'm following in my head.
This One Funnel Away Challenge thing that I've been doing, right, funny enough looking back, I'm only supposed to be going like 20 to 30 minutes on them. I'm not trying to go a long time - that's not my goal...
But there's so many little pieces that I'm trying to help people understand when it comes to learning these frameworks and understanding that it's more about science then it is art... It's more about understanding formulas that cause cash then it is learning exceptions to rules that cause cash... So, I've been going for like 50 minutes in 'em.
I'm literally just following a script in my head. I know where I'm leading it. I know where I'm able to actually follow a little bit of a rabbit tangent, but how to bring it back in. It's only come because of the insane sickening volume, right, the amount of time just doing it. Mat time. Time on the mat. How much time have I spent on that mat? How much, right!
Sometimes, I can't remember who told this story. They told a story about two different fighters or even people at the gym. I can't remember what the story exactly was, I remember the principal and what he was using an example:
So take two people at the gym. Person A goes to the gym and they go to the water fountain they talk to somebody for a little while. Then they go over to the elliptical machine and they set up their settings for a while. Then they'll be on there for a few minutes kinda warming up. Then they'll go talk to somebody else for a while. Then maybe they'll go over to the restroom and the locker room for a little while. Then they'll come back over, and then they do one or two sets of this and they leave. That's person A.
Person B comes in, they actually spend a little bit less time but it's so hyper-focused it's ridiculous. They're working hard, they're extremely sore. Every set they're almost dropping it. They're going to failure every single time.
Who's gonna be more successful? Obviously the person who's gonna be more successful is the person who's killing it.
I'm tryna get mat time. I want as many times on the mat as possible for me to just be actually swinging to hit the ball NOT prepping to hit the ball. So that's why I go do things. That's why I have these little mantras in my head. One of them is 'Mat Time.'
One of the people on a webinar yesterday, they did not get as many people on as they were supposed to, which kinda sucked. I was like, I could call it off. But in my head, 'Mat time.' That's all I said to myself and no questions asked, I just stepped forward and just did it. 'Mat time' and I just did it because I need more time on the mat.
I need more time moving forward on it. I am perfecting my craft. It's hours and hours and hours of doing the thing.
Too many times people are like, "Well, I did it once and it didn't really work." Well, like yeah! It's 'cause you freaking did it once.
How many times did it take you to learn to ride a bike? You guys gettin' this? You have to study frameworks - which is awesome, it's debunking a lot of the mystic. I hate the whole mystic and mentality that people are promoting about entrepreneurship where it's people like lookin' off in the sunset and they believe, I don't know, they're like god's gift to humanity and that they're the change to the world.
Yeah, they can change the world, but frankly, they're just making value and people are paying them for that value. Learn the framework behind it. Don't be allured by the art behind it. Don't be allured by trying to become this creative thing and adding your own flare and that's actually the way to failure. Just learn from people who are doing it and have done the thing. That's it.
Learn from the people who are doing it and have done the thing and have done the thing long enough that they've created their own frameworks.
My wife and I were talking about this two or three nights ago. It's kinda fun, she and I are just sittin' around the kitchen table and we were talking about it. And I said, “One of the things that’s made me successful with this is that I realized that I needed to follow the person that has the biggest cheese. Who actually has been doing the thing super, super long.”
When I go and I find that person and I see the people who have the biggest cheese, what I'm looking for is I'm looking for the person who has dived into yesteryear's experts... This is the reason I follow Russell...
Listen to what I'm about to say! This has been one of the biggest shortcuts ever, and it's the reason why I've only been playing the game for like four years and you all know who I am. This is it right here:
I became cognizant of this probably about a year and a half ago...
What I did is I went and I found and I started paying attention to people who consumed yesteryear's experts like an animal. Straight up animal. Just a freaking beast and they consumed it and they learned yesteryear's experts, the frameworks that they were using.
And what happened is when they consumed them and they became an expert, they got so good at the yesteryear's experts and their frameworks, that they started creating their own versions of the framework. That's what you're looking for!
I'm not just looking for somebody who understands that 10 or 20 years ago this is how it was happening. I don't care if it's business or some skill you're learning or a hobby. I'm looking for somebody to go follow and learn from who has been in the game so long or has consumed the game so much that they are literally producing their own frameworks that have equaled success because it's a shortcut to having to learn yesteryear's experts and the frameworks that have come through.
I was talking to my wife about this and I was teaching her this. I was like, "That's where the big secret has been."
So, I wanna go learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I wanna go learn and fight. I wanna do that. And so what I did is I went and I found somebody, right. I talked to Russell. Russell's huge into that sphere. I talked to somebody who knows that area and my question to him is: "Who has the biggest cheese?” That's actually what I asked him and he knew what I was talking about 'cause he knows that's how I run. And he goes, "There's a guy you need to go learn from and he said who ya lookin' at?" And I said "This person, this person, this person." He said, "They're good. That person's great over there too, but you need to go learn from this guy because he's been in the game so freaking long." I understood immediately what he was talking about.
You're tryna find the freaking Yodas. You're trying to find the ninjas. You're trying to find the individuals and the people who are like, they've been in it so, so, so long that they've been producing their own frameworks successfully.
That's the reason why there's stick figures in Russell's books and that was the sign to me that I knew I needed to follow him like crazy. He has distilled down, literally dozens of experts, down to his own stuff and then is producing his own frameworks.
So now when it comes to marketing and funnel education, my coach, I only listen to Russell. That's it.
When it comes down to listening to, actual like hardcore like sales scripts and sales tactics, I only listen to Grant Cardone. Why? Cause that dudes got mat time, holy crap.
When it comes to building systems in my business that make things run on autopilot, I only listen to Alex Charfen. Why? Because that dude has got mat time and he has followed other experts and he has his own frameworks that he's developed.
The framework is what not only makes you cash but it's also a symbol that the individual typically knows what the heck they're talking about.
Why do you guys like following me? It's because I like to do those funnel drawings. A lot of you guys found me that way. I like to go in and distill down, listening to all these people and seeing it and coaching over 1,800 people personally in this process for two or three years. That's a lot of mat time. And so I see the patterns that cause success. I see the patterns that cause failure.
The ones that routinely cause failure are the art ones and the ones that routinely cause success is the people who take their emotions out of it, realize that they are not are not their feelings, get past their feelings and they just do the science of it:
They're like, "You know I didn't wanna publish, but I'm freaking doing it 'cause he said to." And they're just doing that. And they're just following the people who have their own frameworks. They're just doing the success and science-based ones. You guys gettin' this? Cool. Rock on. Go watch what I'm doing because that's how I execute.
We'll see you guys later, bye.
Boom! Just try to tell me you didn't like that.
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