SFR 293: How My Offer Evolved

Here's a walkthrough of how my offer evolved after something I realized while building funnels for Russell (and his clients)...

Fulfillment is NOT one of the pieces that’s often exposed in a marketer's world.

We MUCH prefer to talk about something that (on the surface) can seem waaay sexier…

Have you guessed???

Yes, marketers LOVE…

Sales Sales Sales Sales

And MORE SAAAALES!

But the reality is…

If you don't have great fulfillment - you’ve got a short road ahead of you.

This all dates back to my ClickFunnels days - you may have heard the story, but *Listen Up* ‘cause I want you to understand where this epiphany came from…

MY OFFER CREATION #RUSSELL’SWATCHINGME

I remember sitting with Russell as he coached his Inner Circle…

We were in the old office where we sat almost back-to-back…

We were a little bit off-center, but we were only feet away…

I had two monitors…

And on the left one, (if we both had nothing on the screen) ...his face would reflect off of his monitor onto mine…

Straight into my face!!!

I always tried to keep something on the screen - so that Russell wasn't looking at me.

I mean, what would you do if you were sitting right next to that guy???

...it was stressful for me for a little bit.

Anyway, when Russell was coaching his inner circle - they were usually nine hours burner days.

He coached really hard…

Eventually, he sat back, muted the mic, turned off the video, and took a deep breath.

I was like, "How are you doing, man?"

He's like, "That was A LOT!”

I was like, "Yeah, and you're still going... It's funny man, you're saying the same thing to every single person!"

And he goes, "I know, isn't that crazy?"

I said, "Yeah, it is crazy. Every business is pretty much the exact same."

(That's what really helped me realize that this works for every business. I was listening to him coach, pretty much every business scenario you could think of)

So we decided to create a program where, instead of getting bits and pieces of Russell's brain, there was a sequential order.

I spent six months going through 12 years of Russell's material…

I ordered it I organized it I said, "Okay, in order to do this, you really have to know X, Y, and Z.” “In order to know that you really have to do one, two and three."

Last Funnel Hacking Live, (maybe it's two ago)???...

Russell screenshotted my spreadsheet - it was HUGE!!!

It was five full *very small font* spreadsheets - which actually became the basis of the first Two Comma Club coaching program…

I was the only coach for 675 students...

For a whole year, I worked with the students.

And as part of their membership, they came to a three-day live event.

Now, I'm telling you this because this LIVE EVENT very much influenced the way I do OfferLab today.

 

(... and if you don't know what OfferLab is, I'll tell you in a second.)

HAVE YOU HEARD OF MY OFFERLAB?

So what happened is…

I've ALWAYS had this itch to get on stage (I even dream about it)...

So I asked Russell, Please put me on a stage!, I really wanna do the 3-day event."

And he's like, "Okay, sounds good."

We decided that he would teach the first time - so that he could test all the material... and then I would teach all the follow-up events.

And so that's exactly what happened.

Russell taught the first event and tested all the material - then I taught the others - it was a lot of fun.

(Russell and I talk about how we ran the FHAT events together in the NEW rewrite of Expert Secrets.)

People paid 18 to 30 grand-ish, (something like that), to be in the room for three days.

And the focus was on webinars.

I know that there's all this disbelief around webinars…

Well…

Webinars work REALLY well, which is why I do them constantly and for EVERYTHING.

So when I started realizing that I needed to ClickFunnel for my own personal growth, I was like, "Hey man, I don't really wanna go, but I need to."

And luckily, Russell was super cool about it; he was like, "I get it completely, go."

And so I left.

When I left, Russell didn't wanna keep being the guy that would fulfill on those live events...

A three-day live event as the CEO of ClickFunnels - that's rough.

And so, the FHAT event stopped.

I did the final FHAT event three weeks after I had left ClickFunnels.

I'm not saying good or bad - that's not the point of this.

I'm saying that because I was so heavily involved in going through 12 years of Russell's stuff, (it took me six months to do it, organize it, then we launched it and then I coached it on the back-end)...

OfferLab is heavily influenced by that experience because I saw:

"Oh, this is what people want!” “This is where people struggle.” ‘These are the things that people are gonna have a hard time with."

It was 675 students in just the first round…

So by the time I was no longer coaching that program and it was re-launched as the Two Comma Club X...

A LOT of people had come through.

… which really helped me to understand more about what people struggle with.

MY OFFER CREATION NO-NO!

I was the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels for two years…

Q: What do you think people want from me?

A: A Funnel.

People blow me up on Instagram all the time, "Would you build my funnel? Would you build my funnel? Would you build my funnel?"

And I never really had the platform to do that.

So...

I'm leaving ClickFunnels, it's my final day and as I'm walking out the door, I turn to Russell and I go, "Dude, any final advice?"

Can you imagine?

Oh my gosh, that was so stressful, I had...

Two kids A Pregnant Wife A mortgage No Product No Revenue.

 

I don't recommend things that way...

… it was only because of what I’d been doing - you know what I mean?

Anyway, as I'm walking out, Russell’s like, "Dude, I got some advice for you on your final day."

I took my phone out and said, "Do you mind if I record it?"

He said, "Sure."

So I turned on voice memos, and I said, "Okay, go."

And Russell starts talking...

He's like, "Well first, I would do this and then I would do that and then I would do this and then I would do that."

His recommendation was, "Dude you're a great funnel builder. Can you imagine how cool it would be if you created an agency similar to the Harmon brothers?"

He and Dave Woodward suggested that I create kind of a really, really, really high ticket agency building funnels for corporations…

i.e, people that come to ClickFunnels asking for a funnel and ClickFunnels are like, "We just facilitate the software."

I was like, "I don't really wanna do that. I don't wanna create an agency."

And so, I didn't do it.

WHY I STOPPED BUILDING FUNNELS...

Here’s WHY I didn’t want to build an agency…

It was because of an experience that Russell and I had when we were building funnels for Marcus Lemonis of the TV show, The Profit.

What most people don't realize is that I was not necessarily hired to build ClickFunnels' funnels. I was actually more hired to help Russell build his personal clients' funnels.

And so for the first six months, all we really did was build a whole bunch of really big people's funnels - that's the reason why I got to go do that.

It had nothing with me, it was Russell getting the deals - I just helped build.

And so about six months in, Russell has this conversation with Marcus…

(***You guys are getting the inside scoop here, is that alright? I mean come on, it's gonna be alright, okay!)

This is what happened…

Russell and Marcus are talking on the phone and I'm sitting right there.

Russell is pacing around saying things like:

"Dude we built you a Ferrari and no one's touched it. It's sitting gassed up in your driveway. No one's touched the funnel. What's going on, man? We spent all this time. It's an amazing funnel."

And then the next person, same thing, next person, same thing, and the next person, same thing.

And pretty soon I started thinking, "What is the issue here?"

Q: Can any of you fathom Russell and I building a funnel for you and then you don't do anything with it????

Seriously think about that - that's what was happening!!!

So I started asking myself, "Why is this happening?"

And Marcus said something to Russell on that phone call that I will NEVER forget - 'cause it kind of burned in my brain.

And it's the reason why I didn't wanna build a funnel agency for MASSIVE corporate clients when I left ClickFunnels.

Marcus said, "Russell, we know the funnel's amazing, but no one knows what to do with it."

*CLICK*

I was like, "WHAT!**?!!"

Russell and I just kinda sat there dumbfounded…

That night, Russell Voxed me and goes, "Dude, here's what I'm thinking, man..."

(I should go back and find the Vox)

He goes, "Here's what I'm thinking. It's really fun building funnels for these giant people...."

(Hopefully, I have the license to tell you guys this.)

But…

As we started looking back, we realized that A LOT of 'em didn't have the education on what to do with the funnel.

There are a ton of funnels that no one's done anything with.

HERE'S A QUESTION FOR YOU!

Q: How many of you guys have built a funnel that has never made any money?

Case and point, bam, right there, okay!

Q: Do you think Marcus Lemonis is an idiot?

A: No.

Q: Is he a marketer?

A: Yeah - (though not really in the sense that we would talk about it. He's more of a general marketer than a direct marketer).

… I have a lot of personal opinion about general marketing - which you’ll know about if you listen to my Sales Funnel Radio show at all 😂 😂 😂

There was a time, (as an employee of ClickFunnels), where I was running eight business’s funnels at the same time because there was never a hand-off - we couldn't...

We built these funnels and we couldn't hand them off because people didn't know what to do with them.

*This is what was really going on*

LEARNING THE HARD WAY (STOP MAKING EXCUSES!)

There's a reason I'm a good funnel builder…

There wasn't a copywriter - Russell and I were writing the copy. There wasn't really a videographer - for specific sales videos. Brandan Fisher would come in...

 

... but besides that, we'd just used our phones, man.

There wasn't a funnel designer - I was doing it.

(I was a ‘head editor’ of the yearbook and a designer in high school.)

For the first year, there was nobody else - it was literally just Russell and me - that's the point I'm getting at!!!

Every once in awhile, he'd bring in some person who was a great designer or maybe hire a copywriter…

But besides that, I'd take the first pass at copy and he'd clean it up or destroy it all.

And then…

We’d just take our phones out and make a video right there

That's why we get so frustrated when someone's like, "But I don't have all the stuff that you do."

You’ve got your PHONE!!!

 

… that's *INSANE* power.

So stick with me, cause I got a really powerful lesson I wanna share with you. Let me run for a moment…

So, I'm leaving ClickFunnels and Russell and Dave are like:

"Dude, go build a suite agency like the Harmon brothers. Really, really, really high ticket funnel builds for really high-end clients. You know how to do it, obviously."

And I was like, "Urrrr..."

Because my mind went back to the murderous hand-offs when Russell and I built funnels for other people…

Oh my gosh, it sucked!!!

Very few people actually ever took their funnel and did amazing things with it.

Very few people ever did ANYTHING with the funnels Russell and I built.

So finally, that night Russell Voxed me and goes...

"Hey dude, let's just build ClickFunnels funnels from now on. I'm tired of this client work."

I was like, "Dude, I agree. I'm so tired of running other people’s funnels and their businesses."

So we stopped.

...that was 2016, almost 2017 - right at the turn of the year, probably October, November time.

We stopped building funnels for other people and just started focusing on ClickFunnels stuff.

And that's when things like…

Funnel Immersion Marketinginyourcar.com

...started appearing - that's why that happened.

WILL YOU BUILD MY FUNNEL, STEVE?

But all the while, guess what people were approaching me (as Russell's funnel builder) and especially Russell …

Q: What do you think was the #1  request we got?

A: Yep, you guessed it - Funnel Building!

...that's all EVERYONE wants.

So I kept all of this in my head and I was like…

I know the problems that come with the done-for-you funnel services better than most human beings on the planet. I understand how to build the funnel. How do we bridge the gap?

 

I don't wanna do ‘done for you’…

I hate DFY. Done for you sucks.

Done for you says, "I'm gonna build this amazing thing for you."

I hate done for you services - I don't offer them.

...that's the reason I don't do them.

But as the “Funnel Nerd,” how can I create something where…

The business owner doesn't need to be a funnel nerd? I can do what I do best as the “Funnel Nerd” but the business owner is involved enough that when there's a hand-off, there's an actual hand-off? The business owner has training wheels on and they get it?

Are you getting this?

That's why this is so BIG - it's like running a whole business for them.

I don't just mean traffic either - it’s the actual 'how do you run the funnel' - there's a skill set to running the actual funnel itself - and that's the reason why I've NEVER offered funnel building services.

However, a year ago, I started asking myself, "What are the BEST ways to hand-off a funnel?"

Done the right way, the hand-off is the best part...

But done the *WRONG* way, clients look at you like:

"Oh, I don't even have a license - thanks for building me a Ferrari."

 

It's not like Marcus Lemonis is dumb. It's not like those other guys we built for were dumb.

We built maybe 50 client funnels, no joke - so this was NOT a one-off pattern…

This was a *Real Issue*

I was like, "Well, what's the issue if it's happening to every single person?"

DISCOVERING THE PROBLEM

After studying the patterns, I realized that the problem was threefold…

Identity Role Skillset

Our clients just didn't have the skill-set to be a marketer - in the sense of a marketer who runs a sales funnel online as we build it.

They had no idea about any of the stuff need to run a Ferrari of a funnel - which meant they had…

Zero clue what a campaign is. No idea why they should be publishing Not at all a single clue how to even really drive traffic No idea what a break-even funnel is - or even the purpose of it No clue what a list is...

... I mean we're talking babies in this stuff - you know what I'm saying?

 

#Babies #Babies #Babies.

I LOVE LIVE EVENTS

So this was playing on my mind, and about a year ago, I was thinking and I was like…

“What can I do? How can I create more value? I wanna add more value. I wanna sell some more stuff.”

I remembered back to the days when Russell and I were doing these events and I was like:

"Man, there's still nothing I do that is more effective than that three-day immersive event."

 

… it's the reason why I tell everyone to go to OfferMind.

Live events are still the best thing I do.

It's the reason I tell people to go to that two-day event before Funnel Hacking Live, #SubtleBlatantPitch 😉

It's the reason why OfferLab has a three-day event.

 

It's because, for me, it’s sooo powerful to able to sit side by side with somebody to look at their stuff and see…

Did they get what I just said or not?

... and then I can help them nail it.

I’d begun doing more BIG corporate style client work and Roger Love from Hollywood reached out, "Hey, come do this stuff for us."

So I get on the plane and we're talking with Roger 'freaking' Love, (if you don't know who he is, look him up - he's the voice coach for all actors).

It's funny, while I was chatting with him he stands up and goes…

"Jennifer Aniston just texted me, I gotta get over there, hold on, let's pause this for one hour..."

 

I was like, "Okay!"

So anyway, he gets up to leaves and he's like, "They're on set right now with Steve Carell, they need my help."

I don't know if I'm supposed to say that again…

But the problem was that I'm going in and I'm teaching this stuff and then at the end, people are still like, "Cool, how do we do it?"

And I'm like, "You gotta build the funnel..."

And they're like, “ But I don’t know how???”

... it sucks right!!! *NOT GOOD*

HOW TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

So about six months ago, I started asking myself:

"What would it take to build a fulfillment machine, the likes of which has never been seen before in our industry?”

I didn't want DFY because you all know what I think about that…

I'm not gonna build a crappy funnel on purpose - just so that people are comfortable running iy.

I'm gonna build a sick funnel and in order for them to drive it, you've’ve gotta learn to be a better driver.

So there's gotta be a combo between ‘Done With You’ and ‘Done For You.’

THE ULTIMATE MACHINE - MY OFFERLAB

I'm such an advocate of the machine that we have built because of the history I have with….

The FHAT event with Russell How Russell and I use to build funnels for clients and all the problems that come with it.

I invented a NEW category of fulfillment - it's not ‘Done With You’ and it's not ‘Done For You’ - it's in the middle.

My team builds the nerdy part but there's enough client nvolvement -so that when we hand of the funnel they know how to run it.

This is what happened…

I wrote down a list of all the things I teach:

Publishing Attractive Character Offer creation Message creation Campaigns Funnel Building Upsells Downsells

… blah blah blah blah.

It was a HUGE list -  then, I went back and I started crossing everything off that you could either…

Realistically Outsource realistically Categorize as NOT actually real marketing

And I was left with ONLY three things…

Message Offer Campaign

***I'm talking through the lens of a business owner.

'Cause these corporate clients I'd been dealing with always ask, "Well how do we build the funnel?"

And I'm like, "Ah, crap!"

So l decided to approach funnel creation from their perspective...

There are a few decisions I have to have their input on in order to build their funnel.

For example:

You cannot outsource the message creation.

It's funny, someone approached me on a ship and asked, "Will you come build this funnel?"

I was like, "No."

She's like, "Are you serious?"

I said, "Yeah, I don't do done for you."

She was like, " I'm really looking to just drop the money to somebody and then they can just build it for me."

I was like, "Yeah, I don't do that."

She's like, "I'll pay you a ton."

I was like, "I don't really care, I don't want that kind of client, it's not so much about the money, it's about who I work with."

And if you want your business to succeed, *YOU* should have that kinda strict attitude too.

Offers are a two-way relationship, which is an episode I just dropped last week…

Anyway, I started thinking about how could we fulfill on helping people build their funnels WITHOUT going down the DFY route?

I know I've been going for a little bit, but I just wanted you to know...

Where my head is on this Why this is such a *BIG DEAL*.

And so, this is the announcement…

I am officially building other people's funnels for them now.

Here’s how…

INTRODUCING MY OFFERLAB

Alright, I've been asked, "Steve, you were the lead funnel builder at ClickFunnels, why aren't you offering a funnel building service for people in businesses?"

Okay, that's a fair question.

Check this out…

Back in early 2016 when I joined ClickFunnels as an employee, there were only about 12,000 users of ClickFunnels compared to the 100,000 now.

And there were only like 40 employees compared to the 400 that there are now.

Okay? What does that mean?

It meant Russell and I were literally the only funnel builders *period*.

All the sales copy The design The video Building the pages Email sequences Integrating software with ClickFunnels

...it was literally just he and I.

About a year into my employment at ClickFunnels though, other funnel building team members started getting hired, we finally had a copywriter, a designer, etc.

It changed my whole world as we now had a funnel team.

So before I offered funnel building services, I wanted to make sure I could not only find my team but that it was also air-tight.

What I did not tell you, and what I've NOT been public about was that my team has already been building funnels for other people for over a year now...

Testing Tweaking Building Making our process better

... and so finally, I will tell you that we are ready.

We've been building other sales funnels for a while, I just have not announced it until now.

If you want me and my team to build your company a professional sales funnel, come get more info at myofferlab.com.

myofferlab.com is where ...

You can talk to us Learn about the process See what we ask of you in the process as well.

It comes with a live three-day event just with me, so I can teach you

How to use the funnel after it's done Get traffic

….as well as a year of coaching from myself and my staff.

If you want us to be the nerds while you continue to run your business… If you're still looking for the core offer and funnel that supports your business revenue needs... If you’d like to hand the critical funnel building task over to professionals who do this full-time… If you want to learn how to design and launch your lucrative offer while my team of techies takes care of your funnel building and logistics for you...

Get more information and apply at myofferlab.com.

When you think about it, all businesses need to be able to do three things…

Get leads Sell a percentage of those lead Fulfill on what they sold

And your professional business needs a professional core offer and funnel to deliver it.

We've already been doing this for a year with students who have businesses that are…

Online Offline Physical Digital Software Supplement Experience with revenue Just starting out

...you get the point?

Not only will we build the funnel, but I’m also actually going to hook you up with the very people that I use to send various types of traffic to my own funnels.

I want you to be taking care of post-funnel build.

If you're tight on money, it's totally fine - we have various payment and funding plans which are also available.

Come learn more and apply at myofferlab.com.

Just be aware that we're actually building you a professional sales funnel, and my team and I actually have very limited capacity in what we can handle monthly.

So skip the line of people shouting the most popular question I'm asked which is, "Steve will build my funnel?"

The answer finally is, "Yes," just go start at myofferlab.com now.