You’re Only One Funnel Away: The Backstory Behind ClickFunnels - #Success - Ep. 137

**Russell Brunson** (0:00)
Do you have a funnel, but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell, so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next Selling Online event by going to sellingonline.com/podcast.
That's sellingonline.com/podcast.
This is The Russell Brunson Show.
What's up everyone, this is Russell, and I've got a couple of cool things for you. Number one, we are at the end of this podcast. It's crazy, the journey. I'm actually right now, if you see behind me with Claude and Code, I'm taking every podcast episode I've ever done from marketing in your car, had a few hundred episodes, three or four hundred episodes, and then the Marketing Secrets Show, which had like eight or nine hundred episodes, and then The Russell Brunson Show, which had, I don't know, 50 or 60 And we're in the process of sunsetting everything to relaunch my podcast and my YouTube channel and my brand and a whole bunch of things, which is really exciting. So what's crazy is that this week, I'm actually starting filming. So that's happening very, very soon. And so, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at in some things. And so I've got a couple episodes left while we're recording, we're trying to get a batch of, you know, three or four weeks full, so that before we launch this, that way if I get in the middle of a Funnel Hacking Live or an event or something like that, I can keep up with it and not fall behind. So we're going to be filming a bunch of next couple weeks and then launching the new show. The new show is going to be called Bootstrap Secrets, which is exciting. I've been talking about this now for probably a year, but it's finally coming to fruition and it's going to be exciting. So I was thinking like, how do I kind of, what are the things to do to wrap out this podcast? And so I had two ideas.
When we first started this whole party, you know, with the ClickFunnels, with the podcast, the live events, everything, one of the core themes that kind of bubbled up a couple of years into it was that you're one funnel away. And he hasn't heard me talk about this now for almost a decade, which is crazy. But the very first time I announced it and told this story was at Funnel Hacking Live. And I told my one funnel away stories. It was all the things I'd done leading up to ClickFunnels.
The ClickFunnels launch, which is kind of crazy. And so, yeah, so it was really cool. And then at this last Funnel Hacking Live, I did another one that was called One Funnel Way. I think I called it OFA Evolution, but it was like everything, all the funnels after ClickFunnels launched. And so I thought, what a fun way to kind of, you know, end this journey, this season, this whatever of the podcast with these two sessions. So this week, today, we're gonna show you guys the original One Fun Away presentation, and I hope that it gives you guys some motivation. It's gonna take you back to my beginnings, back when I was getting started trying to figure this stuff out.
And you'll hear all the different things we tried in the funnels and what it was that got us to eventually launching ClickFunnels a decade later. So that's this episode, and then next week, I'm gonna give you guys the One Fun Away Evolution, which is part two of this, which was basically all the stuff we did after we launched ClickFunnels till now. And so, that was a very emotional presentation.
But we'll talk about that next week. So, hope you guys enjoy OFA. And like I said, I'm gonna be filming the new Bootstrap Secrets Podcast this week. Let's go, it's finally happening. I'm excited, I hope you're excited as well. With that said, hope you enjoy the original One Fun Away.
Okay, so what I wanna do is I wanna go on a journey with you guys, my journey, which started way back over here on my timeline and my backstory. So those who know me or have heard about me or know anything about this, I got started.
Initially, I started learning about business when I was a 12 or 13 year old kid, sitting there with my dad. He was watching the news and I was watching it with him and I was sitting there and I'm like, I can't believe he hasn't told me to go to bed yet. This is the coolest thing in the world. And the news was on and then when the news ended, then Mash came on and I was like, I don't, he must think I'm asleep or something. Like he hasn't told me to go to bed. And I'm sitting there like trying to move, I don't want him to know. As I'm watching Mash with my dad, I thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world. And then when Mash got done, like he still didn't say anything. I'm like, he's gotta be convinced I'm asleep. This is so cool. And then the next thing came on and it was an infomercial, late night infomercial with Don Lapre. How many of you guys remember Don Lapre? Yes, just an amazing person. And he had an infomercial and I was so grateful for him and for his passion, his excitement, talking about what he was doing. And he was talking, the infomercial about how to place tiny little classified ads so you can make a fortune, right? And it was, God, it was the coolest thing. I remember sitting there listening to him and I was like, this makes so much sense. I'm looking at my dad like, you paying attention to what's happening? Like this guy is, the whole thing made so much sense to me. He said, I took a classified ad, I put it in a newspaper and I made $30. And I told my friends and my family, I started a business, I made $30 this week and they all laughed at me. He's like, so then I took that same ad and I ran it in a thousand newspapers the next month and I made $30,000. And I was just like, mind blown. And I've been ruined from that day on when it came to the world. I'm like, I can't not do something like this. I was so excited. I saved a bunch of money mowing lawns and everything. And eventually I bought Don Lapre's kit on an infomercial. I read through it all. I learned it and I wasn't able to actually do anything though because I didn't have money to do direct mail and all sorts of things like that. But that's how I first heard about Direct Response Marketing. I remember after I got Don Lapre's kit, I got so excited. I was at the grocery store with my mom one time and we were walking out and on the checkout stand, there was a magazine. It was called Small Business Opportunity Magazine. Had a whole bunch of little cartoon people in front of me. How many of you have seen that magazine before? That's it? This is like the greatest swipe file of direct response ads ever. So, I didn't know at the time though, there's like 30 things talking about how to get rich quick. I'm like, sweet, I want to get rich quick, that'd be awesome. So, I had my mom buy me this magazine. I went home and if you look at it, it's like 140 pages of ads and four pages of articles. It's pretty awesome. So, I'm looking at every single ad and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can sell gold chains at the mall and make money. It's like, call this one number for free info kit. I'm like, yeah, free info kit sent to my house. And then the next page is like something else. Page after page, all 140 pages, I called every single 800 number to request the free info kit. And about a week later, I started getting these gifts in the mail. First, it was like two or three letters, then it was like 10 or 15 letters, then it was like 60 or 70 letters. And I think those people started selling my name to other mailing lists, because soon it became like hundreds of letters. And the mailman could not physically shove the junk mail in the mailbox anymore, because there was so much coming in. So I get home from junior high, and I'd come home and I'd walk into the house, and I see on the bar, I see two or three letters from my parents and Russell's stack of junk mail. And they're like, there's your junk mail. I was like, oh, and I take it to my room, and I'd open it, I'm like, read these things, I'm like, this is so cool. And all these money making ideas. So that happened at a young age. Unfortunately, again, I couldn't do anything. Well, I tried once. So this one person convinced me that like direct mail was the key. And like, all you do is you get a list of buyers who bought similar products, and you write a sales letter, and you mail it to those people, and a percentage will buy. I'm like, awesome. Only problem is I can't afford a mailing list, and I don't have any stamps or any envelopes or anything. And so I had done something, I'd made a little bit of money doing some chores, and I asked my mom to go take that money and instead buy stamps and bring me home stamps. So she brought me home 38 stamps. That's how much money I had made. And I had 38 stamps, and I was like, this is so awesome. I used to tell my brothers and sister and parents always just to tease, well not my parents to tease me, my brothers and my sister did, because I'd always say, I'm going to be a millionaire any minute now. And like, this is going to work. And they used to be like, oh, are you a millionaire yet? Oh, and like totally make fun of me, right? So I had these 38 stamps. I'm like, okay, if I can get 10% of these people to buy, that's three people. If I sell a $50 product, it's $150. I was like, God, I'll be rich. So I didn't know what to do. And so they talked about sales letters. And so I was like, I write sales letters. I print it out on blue paper. Somebody, blue paper would be more likely to read. So I bought one of my parents' computer. I wrote a little sales letter. I printed out 38 copies of it. I couldn't afford an envelope. So I just folded it and stapled it. And then I didn't actually have a mailing list. So I just opened the white pages and flipped through and randomly picked 38 names. I'm like, this is gonna be huge. So I wrote it, put my stamp on and all my savings, put it in the mailbox. And I was just like, I am gonna be rich. This is gonna be amazing. I sent it out, told everybody like, when this comes back, it's over. Like I'll be able to move out, have my own house. It's gonna be amazing. And unfortunately, nobody responded. So that was the only time I was able to invest. I didn't have the money to even buy a classified ad in a newspaper. So I just kind of, after that, I just kept reading all these junk mail and learning from all these people. And then a couple of years later, I got into wrestling and I kind of forgot about making money, but there was a seed that had been planted. So I wrestled through high school, had a lot of fun, got a college scholarship. I wrestled through college. And when I was going to college, met my insanely beautiful wife, most of you guys, if not, she's right here hiding, so.