Mother Nature knows to go all on the trunk of a tree for quite a while until the tree is ready for more shoots…
Today, I wanna talk to you about something I call ‘Trimming the Shoots…’
A.K.A - *Doing Less, Better*
I’ve put this together from two pieces of content…
1. An introduction I gave to my high-level students in my OfferLab program #SneakPeek.
2. A recording from my OfferMind event.
First, I’m gonna explain what it really means to trim the shoots and then, I want to give you some MORE context...
Because while this game is a ton of fun, it can also be EXTREMELY challenging.
TRIMMING THE SHOOTS - HOW TO INCREASE SALES.
I'm the oldest of six kids growing up in Littleton, Colorado...
(Can you spot me?)
And, my dad made me the yard manager...
Meaning I answered for all blades of grass and every weed. It wasn't a massive yard, but it wasn't small, either…
And I was where the buck stopped.
One year, we planted two apple trees up on the side of the yard and those trees looked pretty sickly...
They were as tall as I was, so they weren't that big.
The first season went by, and they'd just taken root, so we didn’t expect much fruit.
They were brand new trees, so they weren’t gonna make a lot of apples.
Well, the next season, they were supposed to produce some fruit, but still, *NOTHING*
And my incredible mother, (she made me!) 😉... wanted these apples (which weren’t that awesome to eat, but crazy good in pies)...
...but there wasn’t enough of them for even one pie.
So I looked at these trees and thought, "How come they’re not producing any fruit?"
...and I realized there were tons of shoots branching off the main trunks.
There were tons of these mini-shoots all over the tree.
There had to have been at least 100 of these (no joke) tiny shoots…
There were shoots EVERYWHERE!
And as I looked at those shoots, I realized, "Oh, my gosh. Wait a second. That’s why the tree is NOT producing fruit. It's got too many startups."
TIME TO CUT BACK!
So as we started transitioning into fall, I took off every single one of those shoots. I broke them off and pruned the tree back, so it was only the main trunk with a couple of shoots.
Anyway, winter goes by…
Every once in a while, I glance at the trees, wondering how they're doing and I go shake off the snow from them.
It snows like crazy in Colorado; people get snowed in, and I miss that. Frankly, it's one thing I don't like about Boise.
I miss the snow, real snow; lots of feet of snow.
But then Spring came along, and it started to warm up… (I love spring. Spring's one of my favorite times ever. I love those transitions between all seasons.)
So I start going back out to the trees, and I break off the little buds that were trying to grow additional shoots.
And what happened was crazy…
By the end of that season, there were so many apples that it was breaking the tree. There were so many apples that the trees could not handle the amount of fruit.
It was shocking to me how many apples were sitting on those trees.
The weight of the apples was weighing down all the branches and almost every single branch was nearly snapping.
I was like, "Holy crap. Why did this happen?"
After I learned why... I pruned EVERYTHING in the yard.
Maybe I got a little prune-happy, but I started cutting back and chopping everything.
And the next year after that we had this incredible yard.
(OK… maybe a slight exaggeration 😉)
But there's a lesson here….
BUSINESS GOAL SETTING
It may sound obvious, but I'm brought it up at the beginning of OfferLab to show you that you gotta prune the shoots!
I’ve coached nearly 30,000 people.
And when I teach the principles of what I do, it stimulates the mind...
And the mind goes, "Oh, my gosh! I could do…
*THIS*
*THIS*
*THIS*
*THIS*
*THIS*
...and all these shoots start appearing ALL OVER the place!
And what's the problem with that?
None of the shoots grow.
The tree doesn't produce any fruit.
You don't get anywhere.
What I'm teaching is dead sexy, and it is 100% real #ItWorks…
But you've gotta prune, you need one trunk, that's it.
Don't think like, "Hey, I'm gonna grow this shoot with OfferLab, and I'm gonna grow all these other shoots on the side ..."
...it doesn't work like that!
I’m growing a few more shoots, but it's only 'cause I have a team. I'm NOT the only one doing all the stuff.
And I've done this A LOT... waaay more than the average person.
So please lean into the fact that it's hard to pull this off when you have MORE than ONE shoot!
OFFERMIND
(My Team!)
I have a few personal friends who are struggling, so I said, "Why don't you come to OfferMind?"
They are probably on idea six or seven, (which is understandable, no judgment)... we've all been there.
I was like, "Come learn the stuff from OfferMind and start to apply it to your thing and you will make more money."
Anyway, I reached back out to them once the event was over and asked, "How'd it go?"
They were like, "Good, but now we're doing this and this and this."
It was like, "No! Stop! What are you doing? Cut that crap out! Stop messing with the shoots!"
CUT IT OUT!
To make a decision means to cut away all other options. That's what the word decision means - it means to cut away all other options.
Decide what the ONE thing will be.
You're NOT gonna make it if you’re like, "Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!”
#Oneidea.
Now, I'm NOT saying that you can’t pivot if you decide, "You know what, I actually wanna go do this other idea."
That's very much okay. It happens to me ALL the time. If that happens…
You just course correct and pivot.
But…
It's gonna be very challenging if you have tons of things you're trying to do at once, and if you pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot.
STAYING THE GAME
When my wife and I got married, (you all know the story), we had *NOTHING*
How many of you guys have ever been in that scenario? Not fun, right? Not fun at all.
Money isn't bad or neutral, it's good.
Do you know how greedy you get when you're broke? Way more greedy than when I've made a lot of money.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm gonna break a lot of beliefs around cash with this…
One of the largest things I had to re-break, reframe and rebuild a belief, around was money itself; it's why I do the Capitalist Pig thing.
It's like Batman, right? He's afraid of bats, so he became Batman.
I was like, "I'll become the Capitalist Pig!"
...I’ve got A LOT of negative flack, but it kinda brings me pleasure, so… 😂
But it started way back in the day when I was nervous to charge even 50 bucks for an hour of consulting.
I had nothing, so I started trying to figure out ways to make money, and it was like try/ fail/ try/ fail on repeat!
Try... "Yeah, this is gonna be the one," *NOTHING*. "Oh, here we go again..."
Understandably, after a while, loved ones ask (and I'm sure you've all had the question, right?)
"Is this the *ONE* that's gonna work?"
And you're like, "Yeah! Ain't nothing but a thang. I got this!"
But I did NOT have it!
I had NO idea if it was gonna work.. and you're fueled by a prayer and a hope…
"Oh, my gosh, please make this be the one."
I was probably two years in and I was still obsessively focusing trying to figure this out.
I WAS DESPERATE
I went to college in a place called BYU Idaho and one night, I was sitting on a couch in a freezing apartment at 2:00 AM…
And I remember kneeling down and just begging God to help... it was really hard.
I don't know if you’ve ever been in that place?
(I was NOT planning on talking about this, but it was rough.)
And you're like, "It's not that I won't do it, but *what* is it?" WHAT is IT? “
I was trying like crazy and we were spending money that, frankly, that we probably didn't have.
I thought it was about...
“The greater the risk, the greater the reward!”
...which is *GARBAGE* by the way.
And all the stuff that I was trying, NOTHING was working. We were not making any money and I was like:
"I gotta hold my feet to the fire here. What do I need? More pressure? I'm gonna become like 5000 diamonds. Holy smokes, I'm under so much pressure."
We were living on loans, I think we had about $3400 for every three months to pay for rent and all the stuff.
I'm not joking about going to the dollar menu date night thing.
...we’d do that stuff.
IT TOOK 34 TRIES!
So I was praying, "Please help."
I don't know what you believe, and I'm okay with that, but…
I believe is that God cares and that he’s willing to help
But the answer isn't always, "Here it is on try #1.”
Instead, my answer was…
“You're gonna go through 34 tries, son. And I'm gonna mold you into something that you would not willingly become on your own."
There's no way I'd be doing this right now.
Even three years ago, I had huge levels of anxiety speaking with people.
That was a REAL thing.
Those first few episodes of Sales Funnel Radio, have you listened to 'em?
Kinda crappy, right? 😂 And that's okay!
I was like, "I surrender. Just tell me what to do!"... and Russell's like, "Publis!,"
I was like, "No, that can't be the answer."
And Russell was like, "You should really publish."
"No, that's probably not the thing. Let me go figure out more of this stuff. I wanna distract myself with other skill sets. Please. Okay, sweet, let's come over here."
(You know what I'm talking about? We've all done it.)
Then suddenly, I started publishing and started finding my voice.
I started taking these steps and a little bit of light started showing up, *beep*...
It was tiny, but it was out there.
...and piece by piece, it started coming together.
But my family is where it all started…
And there are things that I just would not have done, (including OfferMind) if it hadn't been for ‘The Lovelies.’
I call them The Ladies, my Ladies - my three little girls and my amazing wife.
Think about it, it would be very hard to be married to me - think about what my wife’s had to go through...
I'm serious! Think about that...
For years, not knowing…
"Is this kid just psycho?”
"He's got giant eyeballs.”
“ Go get a job."
I joke to kinda relieve the pressure on that statement, but you understand how much she's had to go through…
My wife is AMAZING!
TAKE THE EASY ROUTE
I don't want anyone to think like, "Whoa, he's talking about himself again..."
That's NOT what I'm saying at all.
But understand that the pattern I'm gonna share with you comes from hundreds of funnels at ClickFunnels and hundreds of funnels built with my personal students…
...it’s a culmination of ridiculous levels of stress and anxiety, and I'm excited because you DON’T have to go through that.
We’ve made it really, really, really, really simple... #ReallySimple… and I'm stoked about it.
BOOM!
If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, right? That's also good.
But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?
That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.
So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.
Wanna come?
They are small groups on purpose, so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days.
You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com.
Again, that's OfferMind.com.
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