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Published: Aug. 9, 2021, 8 a.m.

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Enjoy part one of this classic episode series where Andrew Warner from Mixergy interviews Russell on the ClickFunnels startup story!

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---Transcript---

Good morning everybody, this is Russell Brunson. I want to welcome you back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. And you guys are in for a very special treat over the next four episodes. So let me give you some context on what\\u2019s going to happen, and why you should be so excited.

Alright so, my favorite podcast, other than mine of course, that all of you guys should be subscribed to is called Mixergy. Andrew Warner is the guy who runs Mixergy podcast and I love that podcast because of Andrew. He is my favorite interviewer. If you look at how a lot of people do interview podcasts, they ask questions and I don\\u2019t know, I\\u2019ve suffered from this in the past as well. I\\u2019m not a good interviewer, at least not now. I\\u2019d like to learn how to do that skill, but I\\u2019m not a great interviewer.

And most people who do podcasts with interviews aren\\u2019t like great interviewers, but Andrew is like the best interviewer I\\u2019ve ever seen. The way he asks questions, how deep he goes and the research he does before the interviews, and all sorts of stuff.

Anyway, I love his style, love how he does it so what\\u2019s cool, I\\u2019ve actually been on the show twice in the past. And the first time, I don\\u2019t even, sorry, the second time, he totally caught me off guard. I remember he asked me some questions and I didn\\u2019t really know and I responded and he told me after, he told me live on the interview that he doesn\\u2019t edit his interviews. He was like, \\u201cWell, that was the worst answer you\\u2019ve ever given.\\u201d I was like, \\u201cOh, thanks.\\u201d Anyway, it just totally caught me off guard, but it was cool the way that he just like kind of holds your feet to the fire.

So a little while ago I thought, I want to tell the Clickfunnels startup story. But I didn\\u2019t want me to just to tell it, I wanted someone who would tell it from a different angle, who would ask the questions that I think people would want to know and do it in a really cool way.

So I called Andrew and I\\u2019m like, \\u201cHey, I\\u2019ve been wanting to do this thing, and I want to do an event around it. Would you be interested.\\u201d And he was like, luckily he said yes. So it\\u2019s funny, Andrew\\u2019s famous, I think I might have talked about this in the interview too, but he\\u2019s famous for these scotch nights he does, and as a Mormon I don\\u2019t drink so I can\\u2019t go to his scotch nights. So when we planned this interview, we planned it in Provo, Utah at this place called the Dry Bar Comedy Club. So a dry bar is a bar with no alcohol.

So it was kind of a funny thing. We brought those two things, my world and his world together in this one spot to a dry bar, and told the Clickfunnels startup story. And it was cool, ahead of time he did so much research. He interviewed people who love me, people who hated me, he interviewed our old business partners who are no longer part of the business. He did everything and then he came and I told him, \\u201cEverything\\u2019s, you can ask me any question you want. Nothing, no holds barred, feel free to do whatever you want.\\u201d

So we did the interview and it was about two hours long, and I loved it. I think it turned out amazing. And I hope you guys like it too. So I\\u2019ll tell you some of the details about the Clickfunnels startup story. How we built what we did, what happened, the ups, the downs, the negatives, the positives. He brings a couple of people up onstage to tell their parts of the story. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy it.

So what we\\u2019re going to do, I\\u2019m going to have each episode over the next four episodes be about thirty minutes long so you can listen to them in pieces. I hope iyou enjoy them, I hope you love them. And if you do, please, please, please take a screen shot of your phone when you\\u2019re listening to it, and go post it on Instagram or Facebook and tag me. And then do hashtag marketing secrets and hopefully that will get more people to listen to the podcast. And then please, if you haven\\u2019t yet, go rate and review, which would be amazing.

So with that said, I\\u2019m going to queue up the theme song and when we come back we will start immediately into part one of four of the Dry Bar Comedy Club Interview.

Keith Yacky: Clickfunnels has changed a lot of our lives. We all have an origin story. Mine was something similar to, I set up my website on GoDaddy and things were going great. And then Dave Woodward was like, \\u201cDude, you need Clickfunnels.\\u201d I\\u2019m like, \\u201cI don\\u2019t need a Clickfunnel. I don\\u2019t even know what a Clickfunnel is.\\u201d And he\\u2019s like, \\u201cNo, seriously man. This is going to totally change your business.\\u201d I\\u2019m like, \\u201cBro, I have GoDaddy. They have a commercial on the Super Bowl, Clickfunnels doesn\\u2019t. But when they do, I\\u2019ll do it.\\u201d

Well, boy was I wrong. I changed over and it absolutely changed our business and changed our lives. So thank you for that, Dave. But here\\u2019s the thing, in every industry there\\u2019s somebody that comes along that really disrupts the industry, that really changes it, and that really does something amazing for that industry. And as we all, why we\\u2019re here, we know that person is Russell Brunson. And he has changed a lot of our lives. So before I bring him up here, they have asked me to ask you to make sure you don\\u2019t do any live recording of this next interview, because the gloves are coming off and they want to be able to present it to the world. You can do little Instagram clips if you\\u2019d like, like 15 second ones and tag them. My understanding is the best hashtag and the best clip, gets a date with Drew. I don\\u2019t know, that\\u2019s just what they told me. So blame them.

But with that, again, no videoing, and let us just absolutely take the roof off this place as we bring up our beloved Russell Brunson. Give it up guys.

Russell: Alright, well thanks for coming you guys. This is so cool. I\\u2019m excited to be here. So a couple of real quick things before we get started. For all of you guys who know, who came to be part of this, we had you all donate a little bit of money towards Operation Underground Railroad, and I\\u2019m really excited because Melanie told me right before I got here the total of how much money we raised from this little event for them. So I think the final number was a little over $13,000 was raised for Operation Underground Railroad. So thank you guys for your continued support with them.

Just to put that in perspective, that\\u2019s enough money to save about 5 children from sex slavery. So it\\u2019s a big deal and a life changing thing, so it\\u2019s pretty special. So I\\u2019m grateful for you guys donating money to come here. And hopefully you\\u2019ve had a good time so far. Has it been fun?

I really want to tuck my shirt in now, I\\u2019m feeling kind of awkward. No it\\u2019s been awesome.

Okay so what we\\u2019re going to do now, I want to introduce the person who\\u2019s going to be doing the interview tonight. And it\\u2019s somebody I\\u2019m really excited to have here. In fact, I met him for the first time like an hour ago, in person. But I want to tell kind of the reason why I wanted him to do this, and why we\\u2019re all here. And I\\u2019m grateful he said yes, and was willing to come out here and kind of do this.

So Andrew runs a podcast called Mixergy. How many of you guys in here are Mixergy listeners? Mixergy is my favorite podcast, I love it. He\\u2019s interviewed thousands of people about their startup stories and about how they started their businesses. And it\\u2019s really cool because he brings in entrepreneurs and he tells, gets them to tell their stories.

But what\\u2019s unique about what Andrew does that\\u2019s fascinating, the way he interviews people is completely different, it\\u2019s unique. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I don\\u2019t like a lot of interview shows because a lot of them are just kind of high level. Everyone you listen to with Andrew, he gets really, really deep. The other fun thing is he doesn\\u2019t edit his interviews. So there was one interview, I\\u2019ll tease him about this right now. But I was listening to it on my headphones, and him and the guest got in kind of an argument and a fight and then it just ended and they aired it. I was like, \\u201cI can\\u2019t believe you aired that, it was amazing.\\u201d

And then I was on his podcast a little while later, and he asked me some questions that I couldn\\u2019t quite understand perfectly, so I was trying to respond the best I could and kind of fumbled through it. And instead of letting me off the hook, his response was, \\u201cMan Russell, that was probably the worst answer I\\u2019ve ever heard you give in any interview ever.\\u201d And I was like, \\u201cOh my gosh.\\u201d

So I\\u2019m excited for tonight because I told it was like no holds barred and he could ask me anything he wants about the ups of Clickfunnels, the downs of Clickfunnels and anything else, and it\\u2019s going to be a lot of fun.

So I\\u2019m excited to have him here. So with that said, let\\u2019s put our hands together for Mr. Andrew Warner.

Andrew Warner: I think my mic is right over here. Thank you everyone, thanks Russell for having me here. Most people will contact me after I interview them and say, \\u201cCould you please not air the interview?\\u201d And you actually had me back here to do it in person. And you were so nice, you even got us this room here. Check this out, they set us up, they\\u2019re so nice at Clickfunnels. They said, \\u201cAndrew, you\\u2019re staying here, we\\u2019re going to put you and your family up the night before in a room.\\u201d My wife was so good, look that\\u2019s her journaling. My kids were playing around, sleeping in the same, sleeping together, enjoying themselves.

And then I went to call somebody who was basically let go from Clickfunnels. And my wife goes, \\u201cAndrew, why do you have to do that? That\\u2019s not why they invited you here.\\u201d And I said, \\u201cI do know Russell. I know the team. They actually did invite me to really help get to the story of how Clickfunnels started, how it built up.\\u201d And the reason I was up calling people, understanding the story is because I want to make it meaningful for you.

I\\u2019ve talked to a lot of you as you were coming in here, you want to know how they got here, what worked for Clickfunnels, what would work for us. So that\\u2019s my goal here, to spend the time understanding by interviewing you about how you did it.

So I want to go way back to a guy a few of you might recognize, and I know you would, and ask you what drew you to this guy when you were younger?

Russell: Don Lepre

Clip: \\u201cOne tiny classified ad in the newspaper that makes just 30-40 dollars profit in a week, it could make you a fortune, because the secret is learning how to take that one tiny classified that just made 30-40 dollars profit in a week, and to realize that you could now take that same exact ad and place it in up to 3,000 other newspapers around the country\\u2026.\\u201d

Russell: I\\u2019m having nostalgia right now. So this is the story of that, I was 12, 13 years old, something like that, and I was watching the news with my dad. And usually he\\u2019s like, \\u201cGo to bed Russell.\\u201d And he didn\\u2019t that night and then the news got over and I think he thought I was asleep and Mash came on. So Mash started playing and then it got over, and then this infomercial showed up. And I\\u2019m laying there on the couch watching Don Lepre talk about tiny classified ads, I was totally freaking out and I jumped up and begged my dad to buy it and he said no. And I was like, \\u201cAre you kidding? Did you not listen to what he said?\\u201d Did you guys just hear that? That was a good pitch huh? It\\u2019s really good. I love a good pitch. It is so good.

So I went and asked my dad if I could earn the money. So I went and mowed lawns and earned the money and ordered the kit and I still have the original books to this day.

Andrew: Were you disappointed? I bought it too. It was the dream of being able to do it.

Russell: That\\u2019s why I like you so much, that\\u2019s amazing.

Andrew: And it\\u2019s just, all he sent you was a bunch of paper guides with how to buy ads, right. Were you disappointed when you got that?

Russell: No, I was excited. I think for me because the vision was cast, it was like, he said right there word for word, you make 40 dollars a newspaper, and if you\\u2019re disappointed, but he put that same ad in 3,000 newspapers, imagine that. So I had the vision of that, I think the only thing I was disappointed in, I didn\\u2019t have any money to actually buy an ad. And that was more like, I can\\u2019t actually do it now.

Andrew: You are a champion wrestler and then you got here. Is your wife here?

Russell: My beautiful wife right here, Collette.

Andrew: Hey Collette. And your dad had a conversation with you about money, what did he say?

Russell: So up to that point my dad had supported me, and I figured he would the rest of my life, I think. I don\\u2019t know. So I was 21 almost 22 at this time, I was wrestling so I couldn\\u2019t get a job because I was wrestling all the time. Then I met Collette, fell in love with her and then I called my parents and I was like, \\u201cHey, I\\u2019m going to marry her. I\\u2019m going propose to her and everything.\\u201d Expecting them to be like, \\u201cSweet, that\\u2019ll be awesome.\\u201d And my mom was all excited, I\\u2019m not going to lie.

But then my dad was like, \\u201cJust so you know if you get married, you have to be a man now. You have to support yourself.\\u201d And I was like, \\u201cI don\\u2019t know how to do that, I\\u2019m wrestling.\\u201d And he\\u2019s like, \\u201cWell, I\\u2019m not going to keep paying for you to do it.\\u201d I\\u2019m like, \\u201cBut I literally got the ring. I have, I can\\u2019t not propose now.\\u201d So that was kind of the thing.

So it was interesting because about that time there was another infomercial, there\\u2019s the pattern, about I can\\u2019t remember exactly the name of the company, but they were doing an event at the local Holiday inn that was like, \\u201cHey, you\\u2019re going to build websites and make money.\\u201d And it was like the night or two days after I told my dad this and he was like, \\u201cyou\\u2019re in trouble.\\u201d And all the sudden I saw that, so I was like, there\\u2019s the answer.

So I\\u2019m at the holiday in two days later, sitting in the room, hearing the pitch, signing up for stuff I shouldn\\u2019t have bought. There\\u2019s the pattern.

Andrew: Did you feel like a loser getting married at 22 and still counting on your dad for money? Did you feel like you were marrying a loser?

Russell: Actually, this is a sad story because she actually, my roommate at the time, she actually asked him, \\u201cDo you think he\\u2019s going to be able to support me in the future?\\u201d and he was like, \\u201cYeah, I think so.\\u201d I\\u2019m like, I didn\\u2019t know this until later. I don\\u2019t think I felt like a loser, but I definitely was nervous, like oh my gosh. Because my whole identity at that point in my life was I was a wrestler and if that was to disappear\\u2026I couldn\\u2019t have that disappear. So I was like, I have to figure out something. There\\u2019s gotta be some way to do both.

Andrew: To both what? To be a wrestler and make money from some infomercial?

Russell: I didn\\u2019t know that was going to be the path, but yeah.

Andrew: But you knew you were going to do something. What did you think that was going to be?

Russell: I wasn\\u2019t sure. When I went to the event, they were selling these time share books and you could buy resale rights to them, so I was like, oh. And I remember back, because I remembered the Don Lepre stuff, so I was like, maybe I could buy classified ads and sell these things. And then I was at the event and they were talking about websites, and that was the first thing I\\u2019d heard about websites. And they\\u2019re talking about Google and the beginnings of this whole internet thing.

So I was like, I can do that. It made all logical sense to me, I just didn\\u2019t know how to do it. I just knew that that was going to be the only path because if I had to get a job I wouldn\\u2019t be able to wrestle. So I was like, I have to figure out something that\\u2019s not going to be a 40 hour thing because I\\u2019m spending that time wrestling and going to school. So I had to figure out the best of how to do both.

Andrew: And you obviously found it. My goal today is to go through this process of finding it. But let me skip ahead a little bit. What is this website?

Russell: Oh man, alright. This is actually, the back story behind this is there was a guy named Vince James who wrote a book called the Twelve Month Millionaire. And if anybody\\u2019s got that book, it\\u2019s fat like a phone book. It\\u2019s a huge book. I read and I was like, this book\\u2019s amazing. And at the time I was an affiliate marketer, so I had a little bit, maybe a thousand people on my list. So I called up Vince and I was like, \\u201cHey, can I interview you about the book and then I\\u2019ll use that as a tool to sell more copies of your book?\\u201d and he was like, \\u201cSure.\\u201d

So he jumped on the phone with me on a Saturday and he spent 3 hours letting me interview with any questions I had. And I got to the end of it and I still had a ton of questions and he\\u2019s like, \\u201cWell come back next week and do it again.\\u201d So I interviewed him for 6 hours about it. And then we used that to sell some copies of his book and then it just sat there, probably for 2 or 3 years as I was trying different ideas, different businesses and things like that.

But every time I would talk to people I would tell them about this interview. I\\u2019m like, \\u201cI interviewed this guy who made a hundred million dollars through direct mail.\\u201d And everyone wanted to hear the interview, everybody asked me for it. So one day I was like, \\u201cLet\\u2019s just make that the product.\\u201d And we put it up here and this was the very first funnel we had that did over a million dollars, my first Two Comma Club funnel.

Andrew: A million dollars. Do you remember what that felt like?

Russell: It was amazing because it was funny back then. There were people, a few people who were making a lot of money online that I was watching and just idolizing everything they\\u2019d do. I was trying to model what they were doing. And I\\u2019d had little wins, you know $10,000 here, $15,000 here, but this was by far the first one that just hit. Everyone was so excited.

Andrew: How\\u2019d you celebrate?

Russell: I don\\u2019t even remember how we celebrated.

Andrew: You married a winner after all. I mean really. Do you remember what you guys did to celebrate? No.

Russell: I don\\u2019t even remember. (audience responding, inaudible) It was in my list. That\\u2019s a good question.

Andrew: It\\u2019ll come up, that list is going to come up in a second too. You ended up creating Clickfunnels. How much revenue are you guys doing now, 2018?

Russell: 2018 we\\u2019ll pass over a hundred million dollars, this year.

Andrew:\\xa0 A hundred million dollars, wowee. How far have you come?

Russell: Like when did we start?

Andrew: Today revenue, as of today, October 2018?

Russell: Oh this year? Oh from the beginning of time until now?

Andrew: No, no I mean I want to know, you\\u2019re going to do a hundred million dollars, are you at 10 and you\\u2019re hoping to get\\u2026.

Russell: These guys know better than me, do you know exactly where we\\u2019re at right now? 83 million for the year.

Andrew: 83! I love that Dave knows that right, so I want to know how you got to that. I went through your site, pages and pages that look like this. It\\u2019s like long form sales letters. I asked my assistant to take pictures, she said, \\u201cThis is, I can\\u2019t do it, it\\u2019s too many.\\u201d Look at this guys. I asked him to help me figure out what he did. He created this list, this is not the full list, look at this. Every blue line is him finding an old archive of a page he created. It goes on and on like this. How long did it take you to put that together?

Russell: It was probably 5 or 6 hours just to find all the pages.

Andrew: 5 or 6 hours you spent to find these images to help me tell the story. Years and years of doing this, a lot of failure, what amazes me is you didn\\u2019t feel jaded and let down after Don Lepre sold you that stuff. You didn\\u2019t feel jaded and let down and say, \\u2018This whole make money thing is a failure.\\u2019 After, and we\\u2019re going to talk about some of your failures, you just kept going with that same smile, the same eagerness.

Alright, let\\u2019s start with the very first business. What\\u2019s this one? This is called\\u2026

Russell: Sublime Net. How many of you guys remember Sublime Net out there?

Andrew: You guys remember this? Anyone remember it. You do?

Russell: John does. So actually this is the first business for the first website I bought. I was so proud of it, and I spent, I don\\u2019t know, I wanted to sell software so I was like, \\u2018what could I name my company?\\u201d So I figured out Exciting Software. So I went to buy Exciteware.com, but it wasn\\u2019t for sale. So I bought Exciteware.net and Collette was working at the time and she came home and I was so excited, I\\u2019m like, \\u201cWe got our first website. We\\u2019re going to be rich.\\u201d

\\xa0And I told her the name, I was like, \\u201cIt\\u2019s Exciteware.net.\\u201d and she looked at me with this look like, she\\u2019s like, \\u201cAre you selling underwear, what is the\\u2026lingerie?\\u201d I\\u2019m like, \\u201cNo, it\\u2019s software.\\u201d And she\\u2019s like, \\u201cYou can\\u2019t, I\\u2019m not going to tell my mom that you bought that. You gotta think of another name.\\u201d I\\u2019m like, \\u201cCrap.\\u201d So that was the next best name I came up with was Sublime Net. Like the band Sublime. That was it.

Andrew: And I was going to ask you what it was, but it was lots of different things. Every screenshot on there is a whole other business under the same name. What are the businesses? Do you remember?

Russell: There was website hosting, there was affiliates sites, there were, I can\\u2019t even remember now, trying to remember. Everything I could think of, resell rights\\u2026.

Andrew: Lots of different things. How did you do, how well did you do?

Russell: Never anything, very little. I remember the first thing I ever sold was an affiliate product, I made $20 on it through my Paypal account, because I remember that night, I do remember I celebrated. We went out to dinner and I had a Paypal credit card, and we bought dinner with $20 and then the guy refunded the next day. It was so sad. But I was proud that I had made money.

Andrew: How did you support yourself while this was not working?

Russell: I didn\\u2019t. My beautiful wife did, she had 2 jobs at the time to support me while I was wrestling and doing these things. She was the one who made it possible to gamble and risk and try crazy things.

Andrew: Can I put you on the spot and ask you to just come over here and just tell me about this period and what you felt at the time? Is that, I know you don\\u2019t love being onstage, Russell is good with it, but I know you don\\u2019t love it. If you don\\u2019t mind, I\\u2019m just going to go with one more story and then I\\u2019ll come back to you. You cool with it? Good, she seems a little nervous. Actually, wait. Let\\u2019s see if we can get her right now. Oh you are, okay.

Russell: Everyone, this is Collette, my beautiful wife.

Andrew: Do you want to use his mic?

Collette: Sure.

Russell: She\\u2019s so mad at me right now.

Collette: I wanted to come to this, who knew?

Andrew: You are like his, he\\u2019s so proud that he had no venture funding. But you are like his first investor.

Russell: That is true.

Collette: Yes, I\\u2019ll be his first investor.

Andrew: Can you hold the mic a little closer. How did you know he wasn\\u2019t a loser? No job, he\\u2019s wrestling, he\\u2019s buying infomercial stuff that doesn\\u2019t go anywhere. We know he did well, so we\\u2019re not insulting him now, but what did you see in him back then that let you say, \\u2018I\\u2019m going to work extra hard and pay for what he\\u2019s not doing?\\u2019

Collette: What did I see in him? It was actually his energy, his spirit, because I\\u2019m not going to lie, it was kind of not love at first site, we had, we were geeko\\u2019s, do you know what I mean? Shopped at the Goodwill, in baggy pants and tshirts, I don\\u2019t know. But it was the person who just was always positive and we had the same goals.

Andrew: That\\u2019s the thing I noticed too, the positivity. When these businesses fail, we\\u2019re showing the few on the screen, it\\u2019s easy to look back and go, \\u2018ha ha, I did this and it was interesting.\\u2019 But at the time, what was the bounce back like when things didn\\u2019t work out? When the world basically said, you know what as sales people, when they don\\u2019t buy your stuff it\\u2019s like they don\\u2019t buy you. When the world basically said, \\u2018we don\\u2019t like you. We don\\u2019t like what you\\u2019ve created.\\u2019 What was the bounce back like? Hard?

Collette: No, because I come from a hard working family. So I work hard. So you just work hard to make it work.

Andrew: And he\\u2019s just an eternal optimistic, and you\\u2019re an eternal optimist too, like genuinely, really?

Collette: Yeah, I guess. It works.

Andrew: His dad said, \\u2018No more money. You had to cut up your credit cards too.\\u2019

Collette: Yeah.

Andrew: What was, how did you cut up your credit cards. What was that day like?

Collette: Hard. Yeah hard. Those that don\\u2019t know, I\\u2019m a little bit older than Russell. So I\\u2019ve always had this little bit of independency to go do and buy and do these things, and then all the sudden I\\u2019m like, step back sista! You gotta take care of this young man, so we can get to where we\\u2019re at. Anyway, but now\\u2026

Andrew: Now things are good?

Collette: Now things are amazing.

Andrew: Alright, give her a big round of applause. Thanks for coming up here. These businesses did okay, and then you started something that I never heard about, but look at this. I\\u2019m going to zoom in on a section of the Google doc you sent me. This is the call center. The call center got to how many employees? 100?

Russell: We had about 60 full time sales people, 20 full time coaches, and about 20 people doing the marketing and sales, so about 100 people in the whole company, yeah.

Andrew: 100 people doing what kind of call center, what kind of work?

Russell: So what we would do, we would sell free CDs and things like that online, free CDs, free books, free whatever, and then when someone would buy it we\\u2019d call them on the phone, and then we\\u2019d offer them high end coaching.

Andrew: And this was you getting customers, how?

Russell: Man, back then it was pre-facebook. So a lot of it was Google, it was email lists, it was anything we could figure out to drive traffic, all sorts of weird stuff.

Andrew: And then people come in, get a free CD, sign up for coaching, and then you had to hire people and teach them how to coach? How did you do that.

Russell: Yeah, that was the hard thing. When we first started doing it, I was just doing the coaching. People would come in and we had a little, Brent and some of you guys remember the little offices we had, and we\\u2019d bring people in and we were so proud of our little office. And they\\u2019d come in and we\\u2019d teach them for 2 or 3 days, teach an event for them, and then as it got bigger it was harder and harder for me to do that. So eventually, and a lot of people didn\\u2019t want to come to Boise. I love Boise, but it\\u2019s really hard to get to.

So people would sign up for coaching, and then they\\u2019d never show up to Boise and then a year later they\\u2019d want their money back. So we\\u2019re like, we have to get something where they\\u2019re getting fulfilled whether they showed up to Boise or now. So we started doing phone coaching, and at first it was me, and then it was me and a couple other people, and then we started training more coaches, and that\\u2019s kind of how it started.

It was one of those things though, at\\xa0 first it was just like 5 or 6 of us in a room doing it, and it worked and so then the next logical thing is, we should go from 5 people to 10 to 20 and next thing you know, we wake up with 100 people. I\\u2019m like, what are we doing? We\\u2019re little kids, it scares me that I\\u2019m in charge of all these people\\u2019s livelihood, but that\\u2019s kind of where it was at and it got kind of scary for me.

Andrew: Sometimes I wonder if I\\u2019m hiding behind interviewing because I\\u2019m afraid to stand up and say, \\u2018here\\u2019s what I want. Here\\u2019s what I think we need to do. Here\\u2019s how the world should be.\\u2019 So I\\u2019m amazed that even back then, after having a few businesses that didn\\u2019t really work out, you were comfortable enough to say, \\u2018Come to my office, I\\u2019m going to teach you. I\\u2019ve got it figured out.\\u2019 When you hadn\\u2019t.\\xa0 How did you get yourself comfortable, and what made you feel comfortable about being able to say, \\u2018I could teach these people. Come to my office.\\u2019 Who call up, who then become my coaches, who then have to teach other people?

Russell: I think for me it was like, when I first started learning the online stuff and entrepreneurship, I think most people feel this, it\\u2019s so exciting you want to tell everybody about it. So I\\u2019m telling my friends and my family and nobody cares at first. And you\\u2019re like, I have to share this gift I\\u2019ve figured out, it\\u2019s amazing. And nobody cares.

And then the first time somebody cares, and you just dump on them, you want to show it to them. So I hadn\\u2019t made tons of money, but I had a lot of these little websites that had done, $30 grand, $50 grand, $100 grand. So for me it was like, if I can show these people, I know what that did for me, it gave me the spark to want to do the next one and the next one. So for me it was like I want to share this because I feel like I figured it out. So that was the thing coming in. We weren\\u2019t teaching people how to build a hundred million dollar company, but we\\u2019re like, \\u201cHey, you can quit your job. You can make 2 or 3 thousand dollars a month, you can quit your job, and this is how I did it. This is the process.\\u201d So that\\u2019s what we were showing people. Just the foundation of how we did it, and we showed other people, because they cared and it was exciting to share it with other people.

Andrew: Is Whitney here? There she is. I met her as she was coming in. I wanted to get to know why people were coming to watch this, what they wanted to hear from you. And Whitney was asking about the difficult period, the why. I\\u2019m wondering the same thing that she and I were talking about, which is why put yourself through this? You could have gotten a job, you could have done okay, why put yourself through the risk of hiring people, the eventual as we\\u2019ll see, closing of the company, what was your motivation? What was the goal? Why did you want to do it?

Russell: I think it shifts throughout time. I think most entrepreneurs when they first get started, it\\u2019s because of money. They\\u2019re like, \\u2018I want to make money.\\u2019 And then you get that and then really quick, that doesn\\u2019t last very long. And then it\\u2019s like, then for me it was like, I want to share that with other people. And then when other people get it, there\\u2019s something about that aha moment where you\\u2019re like, oh my gosh they got it. They got what I was saying. And that for me was like the next level, the next high. It was just like, ah, I love that.

And back then we had some success stories coming through, but now days, it\\u2019s like the bigger success stories come through and that\\u2019s what drives it on. That is the fascinating part. That\\u2019s why we keep, because most software company owners don\\u2019t keep creating books, and courses and inter\\u2026.but when people have the aha, oh my gosh, that\\u2019s the best for me.

Andrew: That\\u2019s the thing, you get the high of the thing that you wanted when you were growing up, that you wanted someone to show it to you, and if you could then genuinely give it them, not like Don Lepre. But Don Lepre plus actual results, that\\u2019s what fires you up.

Russell: That does fire me up. That\\u2019s amazing.

Andrew: What happened? Why did that close down?

Russell: Oh man, a lot of things. A lot of bad mistakes, a lot of first time growing a company stuff that I didn\\u2019t, again, we just woke up one day it felt like, and we were in this huge office, huge overhead, and about that time, it was 99, 2000 something like that, and there was the merchant account that me and most of the people doing internet marketing at the time, we all used the same merchant account, and they got hit by Visa and Mastercard, so they freaked out and shut down. I think it ended up being 4 or 5 merchant accounts overnight, and we had 9 different merchant accounts with that company, and all of them got shut down instantly.

I remember because everything was fine, we were going through the day and it was like 1:00 in the afternoon on a Friday. They came in like, \\u201cNone of the, the cards won\\u2019t process.\\u201d And I\\u2019m like, couldn\\u2019t figure out why they weren\\u2019t processing. We tried to call the company and no one\\u2019s answering at the company. Finally we get someone on the phone and they\\u2019re like, \\u201cYep, you got shut down along with all the other scammers.\\u201d And then she hung up on me.

And I was like, I don\\u2019t know what to do right now. I\\u2019ve got 100+ people and payroll is not small, and we didn\\u2019t have a ton of cash in the bank, it was more of a cash flow business. And Collette actually just left town that night, and she was gone. I remember Avatar just came out, and everyone was going to the movie Avatar that night, and I remember sitting there during the longest movie of all time, and I don\\u2019t remember anything other than the sick feeling in my stomach. I was texting everyone I know, trying to see if anyone knew what to do. And everyone was like, \\u201cWe got shut down too.\\u201d \\u201cWe got shut down.\\u201d Everyone got shut down. And we couldn\\u2019t figure out anything.

So we came back the next day and I called everyone up, and actually kind of a funny side story, I had just met Tony Robbins a little prior, earlier to this. So that night I was laying in bed, it was like 4 in the morning, and my phone rings and I look at it and it was Tony Robbins\\u2019 assistant. And I pick it up and he\\u2019s like, \\u201cHey, is there any way you can be in Vegas in three hours? There\\u2019s a plane from Boise to Vegas and Tony wants you to speak at this event. It\\u2019s starting in three hours. You need to be on stage in three hours.\\u201d

I\\u2019m sitting here like, my whole world just collapsed, I\\u2019m laying in bed sick to my stomach and I\\u2019m like, \\u201cI don\\u2019t think I can. I have to figure this thing out.\\u201d And then he tells Tony, and they call me back. \\u201cTony says if your business is\\u2026if you can\\u2019t make it, don\\u2019t show up. You\\u2019re fine.\\u201d So I didn\\u2019t go and then the next morning I woke up and there was a message on my phone that I\\u2019d missed. I passed out and I woke up and it was a message from Tony. And he was like, \\u201cHey man, I know that you care about your customers, you care about things. I don\\u2019t know the whole situation, but worst case scenario, if you need help let me know, and we can absorb you into Robbins research or whatever and you can be one of my companies, and that way if you want, we can protect you.\\u201d

And I heard that and I was like, \\u201cOkay, that\\u2019s the worst case scenario, I get to work with Tony Robbins? That\\u2019s the worst case scenario.\\u201d So then I called up everyone on my team and I was like, \\u201cOkay guys, we gotta try to figure out how to save this.\\u201d And Brent and John and everyone, we came back to my house and I was like, \\u201cOkay, what ideas do we got?\\u201d And we just sat there for the next 5 or 6 hours trying to figure stuff out.

And then we went to work, and I wish I could say that everything turned around, but it was the next probably 2 or 3 years of us firing 30 people, firing 20 people, closing things down, moving down offices. Just shrinking for a long, long time, until the peak of it, it was about a year after that moment, and we were in an event in Vegas trying to figure out how to save stuff, and I got an email from my dad who was helping with the books at the time, and he said, \\u201cHey, I got really bad news for you. I looked through the books and it turns out your assistant who is supposed to be doing payroll taxes, hadn\\u2019t paid payroll in over a year. You owe the IRS $170,000 and if you don\\u2019t pay this, you\\u2019re probably going to go to jail.\\u201d

And I was like, every penny I\\u2019d earned to that point was gone. Everything was done and we\\u2019d lost everything and I was just like, I don\\u2019t know how to fight this battle, but if I don\\u2019t fight it I go to jail apparently. And I remember that\\u2019s a really crappy feeling. Brent, some of you guys are reliving this with me right now, I know. I remember going back that night, laying in bed and I was just like, \\u201cI wish I had a boss that could fire me, because I don\\u2019t know what to do, how to do it.\\u201d And that was kind of, that was definitely the lowest spot for me.

Andrew: And you stuck with him? Wow, yeah.

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