Mentorship and Leadership: A Deep Dive of “Atlas Shrugged” with Josh Forti (5 of 5)

Speaker 1 What's up, everyone? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

Speaker 1 This is the fifth and exciting concluding episode of the interview with me and Josh Forty going into the book Atlas Rugged. I hope you've enjoyed the last couple episodes.

Speaker 1 If you've missed any of them, make sure you jump back in time

Speaker 1 because if you're just watching episode number five, you missed everything leading up to this. So make sure you go back over each week over the last four weeks.

Speaker 1 We've been releasing a different episode. So make sure you go watch all those.
This is part of a five-hour-long interview that me and Josh Forty did during 2020 after I first read Atlas Shrugged.

Speaker 1 I recently just finished the book again and wanted to go deep dive back into it and it's been a lot of fun. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

Speaker 1 This is the exciting conclusion of our Atlas Shrugged series.

Speaker 1 In the last decade, I went from being a startup entrepreneur to selling over a billion dollars in my own products and services online.

Speaker 1 This show is going to show you how to start, grow, and scale a business online. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

Speaker 1 So one of the things you talk about in, well, actually Expert Secrets, but I think it,

Speaker 1 I think they mentioned it. She kind of mentions it in this book too, is like

Speaker 1 creating belief by like looking up to somebody. And like,

Speaker 1 if you can't see it, if like nobody else has done it, it's hard for you people to kind of like imagine it and ingrain it.

Speaker 1 It's like, who do you, like for me, I look up at, I'm like, who do I want to be? Like, what business do I want? I'm like, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 Like you and your books, like, I want to be like that type of bit here. And then like for Katie Richards, it's another one.
I'm like. being a powerful person just in general.

Speaker 1 Like, okay, like, these are like the people that I like look up to. And I'm like, okay, like, that's what I'm going towards.

Speaker 1 So I've like for you, who are those people like in your life that you like look up to, and you're like, okay, like, that's that's it.

Speaker 1 Because I feel like the higher you get, and I mean, you're not all the way up the ladder, right?

Speaker 1 Like, there's still plenty more, but like, you're way above where the average person is going to get to. The average person has a lot of people they could look up to.

Speaker 1 Like, you, yeah, there's a lot less options, I feel like.

Speaker 1 It's like, who are those people that like you look up to and go, okay, like, that's what I'm trying to be more like, or that's where I learned my lessons from.

Speaker 1 Yeah, um, there's different parts of my life for different people, too. Yeah, like, I look at the business side.

Speaker 1 I think the companies I aspire to be like, Salesforce, Shopify, HubSpot, those companies are just like the next tier. But from where we are,

Speaker 1 they've crossed the chasm where we're still trying to figure out how to get that next tier, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think watching them has been, that's why we said we go to dream, we're going to dream force two years in a row because I wanted to,

Speaker 1 I talked about actually in my podcast when I was out there, like I needed to see it to like understand it.

Speaker 1 When I was wrestling, my dad, my freshman year, took us to the rest. I just started wrestling.
He took us to the state tournament. I saw this guy, my team, Winston, and I was like, that's what I want.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Exactly what it was.
Yeah, yeah. And that'd be my goal.

Speaker 1 And I was like, yeah, again, you have to see it to do it. So I think for me, like,

Speaker 1 those are kind of the businesses I look up to. And people, I mean, Tony, from like an influence, like people speaking, Tony still to me is like,

Speaker 1 who's bigger than him, right? Right, right. Or better.
And like, the fact I've had a chance to build a friendship with him is really cool because I... it's been interesting to see him not on stage.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like everyone has a chance to see him on stage and he's the best in the world on there but then you see him off stage and see like who he really is and it's just cool to see that um

Speaker 1 i don't know someone who's been doing this for that long consistently who still cares who's still doing this like he doesn't need money but he still is doing events almost every day of the year because he like you know he wants that so i think he can stop yeah and i get like i i have so much respect for that so i think that's a that's a big thing um yeah just different areas like there's different people but um what's it like trying harder and harder to get closer and closer to him because i like seeing i like understanding them not just from like the, you know, the outside, but understand from inside because it's just, it's a different, different perspective that you don't get typically.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker 1 What, what is it like? Like, what is Tony like?

Speaker 1 Honestly, he's like a little kid. We went to his house and

Speaker 1 I can't talk about the details. We had a slide in his house.
He went down the slide with us and it was, it was really cool. And like, we had a chance to go with him and did a meditation thing.

Speaker 1 And like the way he served us when we were with him at his house, you can tell it's how he wishes he could serve everybody.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 1 you know, and that's his heart. Like, you saw him, like, he's in this room serving us, and like, he's crying.

Speaker 1 You see his emotion, you're just like, oh my gosh, like, he would do this for everyone if he could, but he can't. So, that's why he's doing these big scale things.

Speaker 1 But it's the best way he can do that. Um, but I think if he, if he could, he would do that for every single human that he could.
Like, it's just, it's really,

Speaker 1 I don't know, it's, it's, it's cool. There's been a lot of situations that I've been around him where he could have not,

Speaker 1 he could have easily like turned it off, like, in his, you know, but it it's sincere like it's like you don't turn it off you know i mean and i tried i i try to be that way as much as i can and hopefully you've seen that with you or my kids yeah yeah for sure i try to and obviously like there's russell who's more introverted more reserved than russell he's gonna be like

Speaker 1 but it's still like the same

Speaker 1 hopefully like i you know i want to be congruent like that like i'd respect him because he's he's in every situation i've seen him he's always been congruent yeah which is not i can't say about most people in our in our industry yeah world for sure which is unfortunate because it's just like you were I remember one time I was in an event and I heard this guy speak who's awesome and like he breaks down crying in the middle of the event in the middle of the speech and I was like this guy's great and he off stage and uh he looks at me he's like uh he's like uh what do you say something like I pulled up but I pulled out the fake tears again I was like what like I remember just feeling like you oh like I just felt so sick like I would like how does someone do that and like not he was like all proud of like oh like i got him with my with my thing and like i just remember feeling so

Speaker 1 just dirty and like I just didn't like that I don't want to be that way I want to be I don't want people saying like oh like yeah Russell's different in you know here than here like I don't want people saying that yeah like one consistent person like the same person on and off stage yeah like there's certain people that like you just know like you meet them and they're just they're genuine all the way through right like I'm trying to think like Catherine Jones right for example like she's awesome right we had dinner I had dinner with her and

Speaker 1 well gosh I had dinner with her and some friends. Am I allowed to say

Speaker 1 her and some friends when I was in

Speaker 1 Utah last? And like,

Speaker 1 I've had her as a client. I've watched her on speakers, Deja Panel Hacking Live.
I've had dinner with her. And it's like, it is the same person.
It's so cool.

Speaker 1 And when you, and there are people like that, and they're rare. I really do think that.
That's what people say is like, you never want to meet your mentors because they're going to disappoint you.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Because of that, because it's like, oh, you're put on this pedestal and you see me in real life.

Speaker 1 huh well that's disappointing then that you then it negates all the stuff that's my biggest thing is i don't want somebody who like, I gave them something like to help them.

Speaker 1 And then they see me real life. And it's like, oh, and it negates the value you just gave them, which it does, right? It really does because it takes away the trust factor.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And so it's just like, I don't know. So I think I was nervous meeting Tony the first time.
So I'm like, what if? Yeah, I don't care.

Speaker 1 And then see him multiple times over and over and over. And you're just like, cool.
Like, it's just neat to see that. So, what's interesting is one of my biggest reservations about Tony before,

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 you, Funnel Hacking Live, was actually the thing that like warmed me up to Tony because I didn't really know a whole lot.

Speaker 1 Like, I never experienced Tony like I have like a funnel hacking live or like anything like that. Like, it's so crazy.

Speaker 1 Like, you walk into the room when he's talking, and it's like you feel the energy. Nobody on earth has presence like that.

Speaker 1 It is insane. Like, everyone like tells you about it, but like, you don't really believe it until you experience it.
And I remember, actually, it was in Orlando

Speaker 1 the first time, like, when he was down there or whatever.

Speaker 1 And I remember he came, like, he was in the, like I was in the room when he entered and like energy, obviously, just like when anybody walks on stage was like, you know, premped up.

Speaker 1 But then like he just went into his normal talking. And I remember leaving the room.
And like most people, like you walk in and you feel it.

Speaker 1 And I remember like opening that door and like shutting it and like

Speaker 1 the whole, like my whole body like shifted out of this high energy state to this low energy state. And I felt like if I was just in that room, I could literally go forever, right?

Speaker 1 Like it was just this non-stop source of energy. But what's interesting about Tony is like, Tony doesn't really talk about God, which is super interesting.
Like,

Speaker 1 I don't know what faith Tony is. And maybe he's talked about it and like, you know, something about that.

Speaker 1 And so for me, like one of the biggest struggles that I had because we'll like growing up and like when I first left the house and when I first got into entrepreneurship, I like really wrestled with God, right?

Speaker 1 Especially, you know, like

Speaker 1 going through the death of my brother, like was actually ironically the thing that brought me back to God.

Speaker 1 But like, I really, really wrestled with that. And so for Tony, it was like, he's got all this energy and he's connecting these higher sources.

Speaker 1 He's like talking about all these things, but like he never, like, he never ties it to anything.

Speaker 1 Like, he never gives credit to, well, in my, this is the story I'm telling myself, you know, at the time. Like, he's never giving credit to like this higher thing.
Like, where does that all come from?

Speaker 1 And then, like, the more I got to know Tony, not personally, but like through his work and like through watching his videos and like seeing my friend Hacking Live, I'm like, I don't know what it is that he believes.

Speaker 1 I've never sat down. And if I ever get to interview him, I'm absolutely asking him that question.

Speaker 1 But like, whatever that is, I don't think it's possible to be incongruent because it's like, it's, I don't know, it's, it's not of earth almost.

Speaker 1 It's like it's, you're tapping into something that isn't, like in order to operate at that level, you can't be selfish. Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Do you sense that with him at all? Like, yeah. And it's, you know, I think,

Speaker 1 and I'm sure you've seen it before. Like you talk political and like your audience gets cut in half, right? Yeah.
I think for him, he's, he's traveling such a world, a global thing.

Speaker 1 I mean, Tony is Christian, but it's tough because he's like, half the world he speaks to are not Christians. So he's, he, draws that line because he doesn't want to alienate people.

Speaker 1 He's like, I'm here to serve. God didn't

Speaker 1 send me to serve a certain group. It's to serve everybody.
And I think that that's my guess is why he doesn't anchor that in as a hard thing because

Speaker 1 his audience is so massive.

Speaker 1 But he definitely, if you ask him, he definitely knows where it's coming from. You know what I mean? He's wherever he talks about it.
He's

Speaker 1 the first time he told me, he's like, it's funny because I'd experienced this myself and didn't have words to put to it.

Speaker 1 He's like, I come on stage, I have have a plan everything's there i start talking and all of a sudden like something comes through me and he's like and he's like it never comes out the way that i plan but it always comes out perfect and he's like as long as i follow that he's like it always just works out perfect and i i've had so many times where i you know like again i start talking about something i don't know where i'm going like why am i talking about this and then all of a sudden it's like oh wow and there's somebody that like that was the thing that shifted in form you know what i mean I think the more that you tap into that, the more, again, it comes back to talk about before, like the more you do that, you know, God's giving you this, like, um this this thing and if you have stewardship over it and you use it he'll give it to you more and more and you listen to tony now who's been doing it for you know 40 years like it's actually interesting super interesting you say that so literally so every tuesday i meet with katie right and we have our one-on-one call and we talk for an hour and one of the the topics of conversation was i was like katie we were actually talking about like getting ready for this interview i was like i don't feel nervous at all right And I'm like, and I'm getting so many texts and DMs, whatever, like, oh my gosh, are you nervous?

Speaker 1 Like, what do you mess up? And like, like, so many, like, so many different things, right? And I'm like, I don't feel any of that, right? Like, I feel like this is just like, all right, cool.

Speaker 1 I'm flying off to Russell. We're going to hang out.
It's going to be great. We're going to come.
And I'm like, so why,

Speaker 1 like, why is everybody else telling me I should be nervous? Right. Like, why is that a thing? Right.

Speaker 1 And one of the things that she said was like, and being who you are, and like, you know, being your person, knowing yourself, and like doing this, but one of the things that we talked about was like some of the things that you have to accept by faith.

Speaker 1 And I was really wrestling with this idea of like, am I supposed to be prepared? Like, am I supposed to, like, Russell voxed me and was like, this is the first interview he's ever prepared for.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I just read the book. Like, I don't have any notes prepared for.
I was going to show up and talk. Right.
Like, that's what I do. And she's like, but that's your superpower.
Like that.

Speaker 1 And sometimes you have to just have faith. And the, she's like, you prepare 80% of the way and like leave the 20% up to God.
And she's like, and most people are not going to understand that.

Speaker 1 And for a lot of people, that's going to freak it out. But she's like, how many times have you prepared something 100% you knew every word you're going to say? And I'm like, very little.

Speaker 1 She's like, well, think back to one of the times you did. Like, okay.
She's like, how to go? It's like, well, terrible.

Speaker 1 It was like some of my worst person.

Speaker 1 Like the most prepared, I come, the more, the biggest it'll flop yeah right and she's like and the least you prepare sometimes you just walk in confidently you do your best turns out amazing like yeah because that's what tony's talking about like it just comes over you it's like if you have faith that when you show up and become the like you are the best version of yourself you show up the most prepared you can be and you just fully embrace that and have faith for the rest like god the universe whatever you want to call it i feel like just works the rest of it out yeah you know what i mean

Speaker 1 yeah that's why before i do anything i pray before i pray for this call or call before this interview before i step on stage every single time because a big part of it it's like

Speaker 1 you know without without that like what good are your words you know what i mean if you're if you're doing it with with the spirit with god whatever you want to call it you know uh for me it's the spirit if you do it the spirit then it'll touch people in a way that you can't just by your words alone and so i always ask that and i look for help and i remember i think stephen larson the first time he was working for me we did our first event in the room over here and i remember before i would do the events myself and he started working for me and i was in the back here and i was saying a prayer and he walked in he's like oh sorry he's like whoa that's cool i'm like what he's like you prayed before you go out there.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh, yeah. Like, I'm not going to have there by myself.
Like, you know, I'm not that good. So I need help.
And it shows up when

Speaker 1 you prepare. All right.
I have two questions that I want to ask you before we get like, kind of go to wrap fire and kind of kind of bring this to a close. I don't know.
We could probably go all night.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 you guys want to see people by you? You want us to go to bed? How much longer is we go for it? Are you guys liking this? Comment down below. Let us know.
Give us some feedback.

Speaker 1 Do you like it? Do you not like it? What are your thoughts? We've been going for about three hours. Yeah, I figured it was going to go at least this long.

Speaker 1 I guarantee there'll be some of you guys who are like, I agree with everything. It's going to be like, I agree with half.
It's going to be like, I don't understand what they're saying.

Speaker 1 I agree with nothing. That's okay.
There's nothing like, again, our goal is not to motivate, like, was not to try to convince you guys of anything. That's not my goal.

Speaker 1 Our goal is to flush out these ideas. And hopefully you guys come on the journey and get some cool ideas from it and see how we perceive life.
You know, I think

Speaker 1 I think what's fascinating is

Speaker 1 everybody has such a different perspective on life. And so many times we hear someone else perspective, we get offended.

Speaker 1 It's like, what if you didn't get offended and just listen to their perspective? And maybe you don't listen to everything, but you're like, oh, I'm going to take that and that.

Speaker 1 Those are two things that were really cool for me. And just like, just don't pay attention to the rest of it.
Right.

Speaker 1 Cause I'm sure if you pay attention to everything that we both said, you probably got offended at least 12 times.

Speaker 1 But if you're just like, I'm just going to take the gold that's good for me and then leave everything else on the side, like you've got a dozen amazing things that you can, you can use, hopefully. So.

Speaker 1 All right. So my next question is, who are you voting for?

Speaker 1 Actually, last year, I don't know, four years ago,

Speaker 1 so I'm a big Jack Bauer fan and I I bought uh Jack Bauer for president shirts. And I, that whole day, I was like Instagramming and Facebooking.

Speaker 1 I'm writing in Jack Bauer, I'm writing in Jack Bauer, and I would have if he was a real human, but anyway, that's funny. Um, uh, who are I?

Speaker 1 Just oh, Leah, I was talking around the way, we were driving to the airport, we're talking about Joe Rogan,

Speaker 1 and um, because Joe Rogan is, it's so funny because people like like Trump retweeted one of his tweets, and like Joe Rogan's a big liberal, right?

Speaker 1 Like, he even said he's gonna vote for Bernie before, you know, Biden became the nominee, right? And so, like, I feel like a lot of Trump supporters are like, Yeah, Joe Rogan's like a Trump fan.

Speaker 1 Like, Joe Rogan is not a Trump fan, right? Like, that's not at all what it is. And so, we were like, Who do you think he's going to vote for?

Speaker 1 I was like, I, if, if I was like a betting man, I would bet that he voted, he votes for Kanye, that he wrote him, because he does this three-hour interview.

Speaker 1 And, like, Kanye answers, if you watch the interview, I mean, I know it's three hours of your time and you'll probably never get to it, but like, it is a fascinating interview.

Speaker 1 And, like, he asks, because he keeps trying to bring Kanye back to like, like, if you were president, like, what would you do? Because Kanye is like, I'm going to be president.

Speaker 1 It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of just like when, right? Like, if I don't win this year, I'm going to for sure win in 2024. Like, Kanye, I love your confidence.

Speaker 1 But anyway, like, so like Kanye answers these things questions like completely differently. And so anyway, I don't know where I was going with that.
But my real question for you.

Speaker 1 So, so you can go long on these. We can go wrap up our questions on them either way.
Allie shrugged, got the world on her shoulders. You feel that.
How do you deal with that responsibility?

Speaker 1 Like, because I'm sure there's been times, I know in my own life with my three to five little people that I'm managing some contracts, I'm like, oh my gosh, if I have to take one more thing, everybody's going to explode, right?

Speaker 1 Like we don't have.

Speaker 1 So like, how do you, how do you deal with that pressure and not like one of the things that i've had to learn how to do is i don't know if anger is the right word but like deal with my not not taking out my frustration on somebody else right like

Speaker 1 god bless leah right like she knows me super super well and like she knows the moods where it's like don't ask him a question like avoid it and like let him cool off because if like you say the wrong thing right now i'm just gonna in inadvertently take it out on her right and i like i've had to like learn how to like balance that and like communicate it how do you deal with all that pressure and still

Speaker 1 you got 400 people looking up to you and i don't want to talk to them every day but like that's a lot

Speaker 1 yeah that's just employees and you have the community and right um yeah it gets heavy um a lot and i think um

Speaker 1 it's funny because as you read the book you know alice shrugged and walked away from the thing right and i think for me like i don't i don't want to walk away you know what i mean i don't think i think that's that's the big thing and like i think the first part is that I always think about it like that because I'm a big believer this for me is a calling it's a mantle like this is this is what I've been called to do at this time my life and so it's like as heavy as it gets it's like man think about other people and throughout time who had to carry a burden they didn't want to lift right there's there's tons of them so I think about that a lot um I reach out to other people who are producers who I know I have heavy stuff you can ask Garrett White every time I'm like stressing out to the max I text Garrett I'm like hey man life's heavy just thinking about you and he always sends back something about like dude do you realize how you've changed my like just things like that that just it's just like okay it's worth it like thank you and then in boxer whenever someone boxes me something that's like like this success story like dude just you know blah blah blah on boxer you can star things so i have a whole starred menu of all the people that like have told me how how the fact that i'm carrying this has changed their life so i'll listen to those and i'll listen to four or five or six of them and eventually when i when i hear those things it gets lighter um and so that's a big thing for me is just that uh dave uh one of my i'm not sure if dave's still here or not but dave's one of my best friends

Speaker 1 now dave one of my favorite humans yeah now he's anyway um you know he's carrying a lot of pressure now too dave i don't know if you knew this dave is like the the ceo now click films he's taking over a huge part of my responsibility and he's carrying oh he's moving into the role yeah is he or is moving into is officially and now yeah internally and uh he's congratulations dave man looking back now something i should have done five years ago he's so much better than me at it than i am but like i see him i see todd i see like people on team who are carrying weight and like having other people

Speaker 1 other people you're doing this with besides yourself helps a lot

Speaker 1 um so i think that's the big part of it too is just like

Speaker 1 i don't know if it was just me like that eventually i shrug and walk away but i know that there's a dozen other people all holding that up as well and like that helps a lot as well because you know you're not in alone you know like i always tell dave and my man if i was going to war like i i would bring you like just because like i want you in the trenches with me you know what i mean and like knowing that i'm not in alone helps a lot so i think a lot of times it's those things when when you're doing it by yourself, like that's that's when it gets hard.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I try to not, and I think our default human thing is to like isolate and like take the pressure and pain.

Speaker 1 It's like, and especially for me as an introvert, like I'd rather isolate, but I try specifically when it gets heavy, it's like, okay, I can't isolate, or I'm gonna just get crushed.

Speaker 1 And I reach out, and that helps me a lot to be able to sustain stuff.

Speaker 1 Next rapid fire question, if you will. Um,

Speaker 1 what

Speaker 1 success takes sacrifice.

Speaker 1 So, like, in managing ClickFunnels, funnels obviously like you love it but like what things are you not able to do or are do you wish you were able to do more of that you are not able to because of the role that you play in click

Speaker 1 um stuff like this um

Speaker 1 you know like it's i feel bad there's so many people ask for podcast interviews and things like that like people that would love to do it but it's just like there's not a time i think um

Speaker 1 i miss when we were first growing click funnels and started stuff i remember coming in in the mornings and being like what should we do today and like thinking about and brainstorming, like, I miss that part.

Speaker 1 Like, now you come in, it's like, all right, there's 8,000 things you got to do. And it's like, okay, you know, I miss those parts of it.

Speaker 1 I miss just like, I don't know, I miss not being able to turn it off, but I think, I don't know, it would be nice.

Speaker 1 I guess Alex Sharf and thinking about like, we don't want to turn it off, you don't know why I would. There's times where, and this is dorky.
This is like the cheesiest thing.

Speaker 1 I remember watching the last

Speaker 1 Endgame, Avengers Endgame. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 and the end when iron man dies and and um what's her name pepper pots right yeah she's like when she's like you can you can rest now i remember hearing that and i was just like god i actually started crying i was just like i i feel like i i want to rest sometimes i don't know how or when or like like i i desire that like i don't know how because it's like there's so much stuff and so many things and and i think i I don't know, I long for that moment where it's just like, whatever, whatever the, again, the end of the bootstrap book.

Speaker 1 I don't know where or when that happens, but I was sorry for a time where it's just like, oh,

Speaker 1 we did it. Like, it's weird because in wrestling, there was a thing where you get your hand raised and you get the like the rest.

Speaker 1 In business, I haven't found that. Like, it's just this constant thing where you have victories and stuff, but you never,

Speaker 1 you know, again, wrestling is like you cut weight all week, you train, you practice, and you go out there head to head, you wrestle, you get your hand raised, you go out to eat, and you relax, you sleep that weekend, and the Monday, you get back to work.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't think in business, there's ever been that, like, oh, you think it exists?

Speaker 1 I don't know i think

Speaker 1 i i assume when people sell a business or some of that but most people i know who've sold a business it's harder because then it's like someone else is taking your thing that looks like your identity is tied to it so that scares me too and so i don't know and that's why i'm like i don't know if it's like is it when i die that i'm like oh like you know like iron man i don't know but like

Speaker 1 i don't know someday like

Speaker 1 I desire that. I don't know how to get it.
But that's something I'm looking at. Like, how do you, how do you get that? How do you get that release again? And you're just like, oh, I did a good job.

Speaker 1 You know, I think Funnel Hacking Live is probably the closest to that, yeah, that's what I was saying where after it ends. But then also, sometimes, like

Speaker 1 two years ago, it ended semi-controversial, and I got blown up for like three or four days. And I remember, just like, I remember, I was like, This sucks!

Speaker 1 Like, I just killed myself, and now I've been like defending myself for three days because of some other speaker who said something that I wish they wouldn't have, but they did. And

Speaker 1 you know, and yeah, some things like that are hard, but huh, anyway,

Speaker 1 are we having fun hacking live this year? Uh, or next year,

Speaker 1 yeah, we're

Speaker 1 We're in a contract battle with

Speaker 1 Nashville, where we've done the last two years. We're supposed to go there again this year.

Speaker 1 It typically takes us nine months to fill Funlocking Live.

Speaker 1 Obviously, because of everything we haven't, we're like three months out from when it was supposed to be, and there's no way I can fill it in time. Plus, I don't think we were going to come to there.

Speaker 1 And so we're trying to like... push that contract for another year and then doing a hybrid something in between.

Speaker 1 But so far we haven't even got a contract, which is

Speaker 1 anyway so something will happen and i'm dying to not announce it yet because i don't have finality yet but some some version what you mean you can't break something right here

Speaker 1 i'm trying my best one o'clock in the morning eastern time we'd love to do some kind of hybrid something um essentially because we spoke i spoke at tony's thing where he had the big internet yeah how is that it was really cool and hard because At first you come out and you're like in this room and there's faces everywhere like, oh, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 But you're speaking an event, you shift from like, you're looking different people, which is fun. Here, if you look at people, it looks like you're looking talking to this.

Speaker 1 So, you have to look at the camera. So, you have a million faces everywhere, and you have to look right here.
Oh my god,

Speaker 1 and like everyone's doing weird things, and like, so it's kind of hard because you're like, I have to look here or else it looks like I'm not connected to you.

Speaker 1 But, like, there's so much happening that I want to, like, so that was

Speaker 1 crazy. It was almost not, I don't know if dizzy is the right word, but something that we were just like, anyway, that was, it was kind of, it was different, it was hard to get used to.
Yeah. Um,

Speaker 1 but uh, anyway, uh, he's building a new place. It's three times as big.
We're just gonna have a hybrid, but it's like

Speaker 1 half as that, half as a stadium. He says something interesting.
He's like, he's like, this year's the year of virtual. Next year's the year of hybrid.
So I'm trying to figure out our version of that.

Speaker 1 And I don't know what that is yet. Hybrid being part live, part.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Cause I never wanted to make fun of you live virtual ever because like, you know, it's a thing.
But I also want to make it,

Speaker 1 yeah. Anyway, so I'm hoping, I'm hoping in the next

Speaker 1 couple weeks to have some finality on that contract so we can start the next, whatever the process looks like.

Speaker 1 So there'll be some version of 2021 for sure cool where people who want to travel will be able to travel all right awesome two more questions one what is one thing that people don't know about you

Speaker 1 like what's a what's a russell brunson thing that like is a pretty like part of who you are that like the people don't want to know huh

Speaker 1 it's public about everything

Speaker 1 um are you

Speaker 1 I don't know. That's a good question.
Have you learned anything about me since you've been here? Yeah, a couple of days. Really? Yeah, a couple of things.

Speaker 1 Yeah. More, more from your wife, though.

Speaker 1 She's telling you all the good stuff.

Speaker 1 Also, your kids are fascinating. Yeah.
Yeah. I talked to them for probably 10, 15 minutes.
My kids are the coolest. I think my biggest fear in life is that I am not going to,

Speaker 1 I'm not going to be the dad that they need. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 1 I don't know, it keeps them like keeps me like, like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Being a parent is way harder than I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be an amazing at it.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I can influence thousands of people at once, but like the person you care about and love the most.

Speaker 1 And same with my wife, I think those are my biggest fears. Like, I don't want to mess up the family.

Speaker 1 And, and it's, it's, it's weird because it's like, again, I feel like all my superpowers are like my kryptonite in a family. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And so I think I struggle with that a lot of times. We're just like, man, I'm such a good communicator.
I think. Right.
Communicating messages.

Speaker 1 And I struggle communicating with the people I love the most. So I think that's the thing.
I'm scared to death of cats and dogs. I will not touch them.
Really? Yeah, I won't touch any animal.

Speaker 1 They're disgusting to me. Like, and I'm allergic to cats, but the way it came about is

Speaker 1 when I was in high school, the girl I was dating, she had a cat and they went out of town. She's like, you can watch my cat.
And I was like, okay. So I came in and the cat's like rubbing against me.

Speaker 1 So I was like petting it because I'm like, I've never had an animal before, right? I'm petting it. And then my eyes swollen shut for three days.

Speaker 1 Three days later, it finally opened again and the white part was all blood red. And I haven't touched animals since then.
I like, you can watch. Like my in-laws have cats.

Speaker 1 I walk in house and I stand there. I won't sit on the couches because i'm like

Speaker 1 because i'll break out in allergies if like a dog runs up to me like everyone like you'll see how it's gonna turn my like don't touch me like anyway i don't like animals unless you can eat them so there's something people are probably there you go who would have guessed who would have guessed all right last question final question and uh i asked this to i think i think i have asked this to you before but now we're here we're in person and we're going to talk

Speaker 1 I want you to fast forward to the end of your life when you are on your deathbed. And I want you to, like, all your money and success and fame and influence, like it's all gone.

Speaker 1 But like, you've influenced a lot of people. And like, you get to leave them with a final message that like kind of defines

Speaker 1 like not what you took away from life, but like the message that you feel like you should like put on to some, like pass on to for generations to come. Like, what would you want to be defined by?

Speaker 1 Like, what would you want that message to be and for people to remember you by? That's cool.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 and I'm hoping, this is like my biggest hope. I'm hoping that, like, when we die, we go to our maker.

Speaker 1 I'm hoping that we get a glimpse of like what our life actually did, you know, like the ripple effect. Like, you need to, like, you know, um, it's wonderful life.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm hoping we all of us get that experience because you have no idea what you're actually doing with it.

Speaker 1 But, like, I'm sure what we're all doing is, anyway, I'm praying that we get that moment because that would be anyway. I think my message that is so cool.
Yeah. Can you imagine that?

Speaker 1 Like, that'd be wild. Yeah.
We needed to do we can do a podcast just about like our faith. Yeah.
That'd be cool. That'll be our next one.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Next one, I'll fly out here for, for and we'll just do just about just about god and faith that'd be fun um i think for my message like i would leave out is i think that

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 again this will tie back to what we talked about initially you know i think that a lot of us start these businesses or start whatever we're trying to do whatever we're called to do it's like we started initially out of greed right but now man like we have these desires that make us want to do stuff right

Speaker 1 and um and i think for me when i first got started in this business i thought it was to make money and all these kind of things and i saw like even though i started having impact like this is cool this is cool but

Speaker 1 it wasn't until I had a coach a few years ago. She's amazing.
And I remember

Speaker 1 she asked me about like, what I think God thinks about my business. I'm like, why would he care about this? Like, he cares about my, how I'm living my life and keeping the commandments and stuff.

Speaker 1 Why would he care about this? And she's like, don't you see it? And I'm like, see what? She's like, you not see like what he's like, like who you've become, like what, like his hand in your life.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And it, and it never crossed my mind.
And like, she started like helping me understand, like,

Speaker 1 like, like, this thing that you're doing it's not just like to make money this is the calling this is like literal like you were called of God to do this thing and the ripple effect and people's lives you're changing even though you you're like you're helping people start business or build funnels it seems seems like like it doesn't matter but it does because it frees people and then they can change people's lives and like the ripple effect is huge and she helped me to understand that day in a in such a profound way that just like these things that we're doing, like it's, it's, it's a literal calling from God.

Speaker 1 And I think if I was on my deathbed, I would, I would want people to know, like, when you feel that, that tug or that nudge, that thing that starts you on this journey, that's not just like, oh, it'd be fun.

Speaker 1 I'll make some money or whatever. It's like, it's literally God like giving you something like,

Speaker 1 this is your stewardship. Like do something with it.
Like, see what it is. And I think if you realize that, like, since I've realized that, like, it's been, it's been different.

Speaker 1 Like, now that I know that, it's like, okay, I'm going to run as hard as I can because this is not just an idea I had. This is, this is a gift.

Speaker 1 And it's like, you test like, like, what am I doing with this? And then when you, when you look at it from that lens, it's like, man, you can do and create.

Speaker 1 you you you have more faith in yourself because it's not yourself right like like I get scared every time I get on stage I got nervous before this like I get people you're probably confident because you're on the stage in front of 35

Speaker 1 I freak out in front of like 20 people like I get so nervous but I'm like I know that I can do it because this is a calling that I was given and he's not going to give me something I can't do and so I think that if I could help people understand I don't know what I would articulate it but I think if everybody understood that like like how real that actually is it'd make you run harder make you work harder and make you braver make you have more courage, more like all the things you need to get that message out because you were called.

Speaker 1 Like it is a literal calling and

Speaker 1 and you're probably not worthy of it yet. Like when you get it, you're not worthy.
Like he, he, uh,

Speaker 1 they say he, he qualifies who he calls, right? Like you're not qualified right now, but like the act of you moving forward is what qualifies you, right? What prepares you for the calling.

Speaker 1 And I think that if people understood that, man, people would focus so much less on themselves and on their situation and just like, all right, here's the baton, run, right? Yeah. Start running.

Speaker 1 And he would do it with perfect faith because you know it's from somebody beside yourself. And I, I, I think people understood that and believed it would be, it would change everything.

Speaker 1 Russell, thank you so much, man. Yeah.
So much fun. I'm so glad we were able to make this happen.
How long do we have to do? Like, what, where are we at? We're at three hours and 18 minutes. Dang.

Speaker 1 And we're still here. Three hours and 20 minutes.
A lot of people are still here. Yeah, we got.
Yeah, quite a bit. Thanks for having me, man.
This was this.

Speaker 1 Thanks for coming all the way out here for this. Yeah.
Of course.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I want to know the comments now. What do you guys think of the interview? Yes.
Good, bad. Thumbs up.
Rate it. On a scale from one to 10.
On a scale from one to 10. Give us

Speaker 1 a rating. I used to think Russell's cool, but now I think he's crazy.
Or I used to think Russell's crazy. Now I think he's cool.
Like, I'm good with all those things. I'm just curious.

Speaker 1 Russell, God bless you.

Speaker 1 God bless your wisdom and mission. Look at this.
Thank you so much. This is amazing.
Smiley's are here. What's up, Smiley? Yeah, let's go.
What's up, Jada Smiley? Great stuff. Awesome.
I love it.

Speaker 1 I love it. I could be, oh, a 1,000.
We got a 1,000 out of 10. That's pretty darn good.
It is really good. 12, 12 out of 10.
Oh, so Brent, what's up, man?

Speaker 1 All right, we're going to have to do this again. Sometime we can sit down and talk about God.
That one we're really going to have to get prepped for. Oh, you know, Nick, do you know Nick Robbins?

Speaker 1 Uh, no, top of my head. All right.
Um, he's like kind of in the cliff funnels world.

Speaker 1 Like, he ran an agency, sold it, but like still remained a partner, and then like got bored and then like came back into it.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so he and I had a three, three and a half hour uh conversation about God. So like it's interesting because

Speaker 1 he and I actually have a lot of similar beliefs, but he doesn't believe in God. Like, so he's like, yeah, I think there's something up there and it's like something intelligent or whatever.

Speaker 1 And so like we had to, like, he uses language. And like, I don't typically like, so like, we had all this big, long, huge debate.
So it'd be fun to sit down.

Speaker 1 So I think one of the most fascinating conversations I ever had was with Howard Berg, World Fascist Reader. Yeah,

Speaker 1 he came here, didn't he? Yeah, a couple of times we've hung out. And he's read 30,000 books.
And I was like, I was like, I can ask this guy any question I want.

Speaker 1 And so I asked him, I was like, what's your opinion on God? And I remember he told me,

Speaker 1 because like, again, religion usually causes fights because like, well, I believe, you know, and it's so cool because he's like he's like well most people read one book and then that they base their belief on God on this one book he's like I've read I can't remember what was like 1200 books on God from every perspective he's like based on that this is what I believe it's just like so cool to see that I think I think if all of us instead of us just like this is my way this is my way it's like let's just hear even if you completely like I completely disagree with so many people's opinion but I still hear because again like what like there's why do they believe that there's something there's a reason why they believe that like I want to understand that and

Speaker 1 um anyway and it's it's just that's my big thing but my big thing is like and that's one of the hardest things for me is figuring out, like, my belief is always changing.

Speaker 1 This is probably the reason I started the podcast. I just wanted to talk to people, right? I'm like,

Speaker 1 if I'm wrong,

Speaker 1 like, I'm so excited whenever someone comes and is like, you're wrong, and here's why. And I'm like, sweet.
Oh, my gosh, thank you so much. I know what I'm on to next.
Yes. Right.

Speaker 1 But everybody else is like, I don't want to be wrong.

Speaker 1 I'm like, if somebody comes in and like proves my idea wrong, like my ideas are pretty thought through. I'm a really thought through person.

Speaker 1 Like I know why I believe what I believe, not just what I believe. Right.
So someone can come along and like challenge that.

Speaker 1 And that's like one of the things that like was so attractive to me about Leah is like Leah, like, Leah was smart. Like, she challenged like even beliefs that like she even agreed with.

Speaker 1 Like, she'd play the devil's advocate and, like, change it, like, challenge it. I'm like, that's what I like.
I want to grow and expand. Like, so anyway, we'll have to go back and do that.

Speaker 1 So, all right, Russell, thank you so much, man. Super, super appreciate it.
Um, guys, as always. Hustle, hustle.
God bless. Don't be afraid to think different.
And who knows?

Speaker 1 You might just end up in a chair next to Russell Runson. So it'd be awesome.
guys. As always, hustle, hustle.
God bless. Don't be afraid to think different.

Speaker 1 Those of us that think different are gonna change the world by using funnels and other stuff.

Speaker 1 I love you all, and I will see you on the next live stream episode. Take it easy, fam.
Peace.

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