Semi-deep thoughts from inside the wrestling room.
On this episode Russell talks about how trying to teach his boys to love wrestling the way he does has been met with a lot of resistance, but why he isn’t giving up. Here are some of the cool things in this episode:
So listen here to find out why you should continue to push forward in the new things you try, despite the initial resistance you will get.
---Transcript---
What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson and welcome to a special wrestling room edition of the Marketing Secrets podcast.
Hey everyone, so I’m here in the wrestling room at my home, well I guess technically it’s in my detached garage, but those who haven’t seen it, if you’re watching the video version, this is what it all looks like. It’s my little piece of heaven here on earth. I love it.
Today was the very first ever wrestling practice I did with my kids and their friends here. These are the t-shirts we made because I’m a little eccentric and we can’t have a practice without a t-shirt. So we made t-shirts and everything. But it was fun, we had I think 12 or so boys here, from my little kids age up to the older kids and it was fun. But it was hard.
It’s interesting, obviously wrestling has been my passion for my whole life, I want my kids to be in it, but for some reason they just have so much resistance to it. It’s like, ugh. I remember this year my 12 year twins started wrestling finally and the very first day they went to practice, I didn’t know practice had started yet, I thought it was starting the next day. They came home, both in tears, “We hate wrestling, we’re never going back.” I was like “oh man.”
So I called the coach up, got to know him and he said, “You should come help coach then.” I was like, “dangit.” So I decided to be an assistant coach and spent the next two months, two and a half months or so, everyday at wrestling practice, which ended up being amazing with the kids. But it was hard because between each break, “Can we quit yet dad? Can we quit yet?” I watched my kids get out there and get beat up, and I’m just like, “Am I doing the right thing?”
Part of me is like, you gotta make your kids be tough and force them to do hard things, but then part of me is like, man, they’re not having any fun. Am I a bad dad for doing it. This is the emotional turmoil that goes through my head as I’m trying to learn this whole parenting game, which is way harder than I thought it was going to be. Making millions of dollars is way easier than raising kids.
Anyway, they finished the season, they had a good time. By the end of it, Bowen, who is the one who hated wrestling the most, told me that wrestling is his favorite sport. And then Dallin, he got injured pretty bad, I think I did a podcast on that, but he liked it as well. So finally I’m trying to, now that the season is over I’m like, “We got a wrestling room in our backyard, let’s get a bunch of kids together.” I’ve been trying forever and finally, today was the first day we made it happen.
I have my little boy Aiden out here too, and some of his friends and it was crazy. It’s something you just need to do, as you start new things again you forget how much resistance normally comes when you start something new. I’ve been trying, honestly for 2 years, to have this wrestling practice. Six months ago I printed these shirts, I’m like, “We’re doing it this weekend.” And we didn’t do it again and it finally happened today.
And even today, last night Aiden, my seven year old, going to bed he’s like….I’m like, “You have to go to bed now.” Because it was like 10 o’clock, “We gotta get up for wrestling.” “I don’t want to wrestle in the morning. I have homework and all these things.” I’m like, “you have homework? You’re in first grade, dude.” He’s like, “Yeah, I have 5 hours of homework, I can’t do wrestling, I have to do homework in the morning.” I’m like, “Whatever dude.”
Just fighting. This morning he was fighting, and everyone was fighting, they didn’t want to come. Then they came out here and the boys were fighting and the twins were fighting, and then luckily their friends showed up, which was good. And then we did practice, and practice was way….it’s just funny, in your head you’re like, “They’re all going to listen, we’re going to do all these things, we’re going to get through stuff.” Oh it was hard, we had an odd number of people so I had to be a drill partner, plus coach, plus trying to coach everyone, anyway, it was tough and there was so much resistance.
And then at the end my boys start fighting and their crying, and I tried to do the little wrestle off’s to teach the kids wrestling and two of my boys are crying by the end of it because they got hurt. So much resistance.
Anyway, the reason I’m making this video is two-fold. Number one, I think someday it’ll be fun to come back here, and if I can get these kids past the initial pain of a new thing, it’ll be fun to show them this and be like, “this was day number one of practice guys, this is how beat up your dad was and how tired and how bad I wanted to quit already.” Because man, you start anything new, the initial resistance is insane. You have to push this boulder up a hill and if you’re not insanely passionate and obsessive about what you do, you’re not going to make it up that hill, there’s just too much resistance that happens initially.
Lots of people tell me, “I’m going to start a business, I’m not passionate about anything. Can I just…” They just want to do something. I’m like, “Yeah you can but there’s a lot of resistance that goes into starting a business and you gotta push this boulder up a hill and if you don’t love it, you’re going to…” Like if I didn’t love wrestling, and love just spending time with the boys, I’d quit after today. As much fun as it was, it was horrible, it was so hard. It was not horrible, it was good, it was just not the picture I painted in my head.
I think a lot of times we get into business, we have this picture in our head, this is what it’s going to look like, it’s going to be amazing. And then you get in there and you’re like, “Huh, nobody wants my stuff. Wow, traffic is expensive.” Problem, problem, problem, problem. And if you’re not insanely passionate initially, the resistance will stop you, will bury you before you ever get there.
As I’m trying a new thing, in a new chapter in my life, of being a coach of my kids. As I’m going through that resistance I just wanted to share with you guys because we all go through it. Most of you guys listening to this podcast, you’re here because you want to learn marketing and business and scaling and things like that, you probably weren’t thinking about me talking about wrestling coaching, but it’s the same principal. Anything new we start, we will be immediately met with tons of opposition and resistance, no matter what it is, especially if it’s a good thing. The better it is, the more opposition and resistance you will get. That’s a sign that you’re doing the right things.
So with that said, I’m done. I’m going to go sit in the hot tub. I got a stuffy nose, I’m kind of sick. But I’m just going to celebrate today, act like it was everything I dreamt of and more so I can forget about some of the hurdles, so that way we’ll be able to keep moving forward and keep doing this.
I just know that if I do this consistently for a month, for six months, for a year, my kids will be good. They’re going to like it, I’m going to like, we’ll have wrestlers that know what they’re doing and practices will become fun and it’ll be awesome. But it all starts somewhere and today was my starting day.
Whatever it is you’re starting at, or wherever you are meeting the most opposition right now, hopefully this gives you a little bit of hope and faith and the energy you need to push through that opposition, because the amazing stuff is right on the other side. We just gotta get there. It’s happened so many times in my life, in so many different areas, and I’m excited for it to happen out here in the wrestling stuff, as long as the kids don’t quit.
So there’s my job. It’s harder when it’s yourself, you don’t have to quit. But the kids are like, “We don’t like this.” It’s harder. But they’re liking it more, it’s getting better.
So alright guys, with that said, I’m going to go and maybe take a nap or something, I don’t even know. But whatever you’re doing, break that resistance, talk to you guys soon. Bye everybody.