Until you’ve cycled at least once, I can’t be your business partner.
On today’s episode Russell talks about why successful people aren’t as cool as they think they are. He admits to falling into this same pattern and how he has been able to be a lot more humble.
Here are some fun things you’ll hear on this episode:
Listen below to hear why you aren’t as cool as you might think you are.
---Transcript---
Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson and I want to welcome you to another exciting, emotional, awesome Marketing in Your Car.
Hey everyone, I just got out of the gym today. I was thinking a lot. I actually did a podcast last night but we're going to do another one because I just want to talk about something that I think is very important for everyone to hear, especially me, especially pretty much everyone.
The moral of this podcast, I’ll tell you the moral first and then we'll dig into the actual nuts and bolts behind it. The moral of the story is you are not as cool as you think. It's funny, in the world that we live in, the world that I'm in, it's amazing to me how impressed people are with themselves. It drives me insane.
I don't know what it is but when people have a little bit of success, they just become super impressed with themselves, and rightfully so but there comes a time I think in most entrepreneurs' lives where you realize that you're not as cool as you think you are. The sooner that happens for you, the better.
If it hasn't happened for you yet, I want to give you the blessing of letting you know that you're not as cool as you think. I remember when I first got started in this business, and things started happening and started making money, man, I thought I was the coolest thing in the world. I was unstoppable. I started making stupid decisions because I thought I was invincible, and grew my company really, really quick, and then lost it all because of stupid decisions.
You think after almost losing it all once, I would have been a little bit smarter, but no, instead, I got a little more success again, things came back, and the second time I built it twice as big. We had 100 employees and I was so impressed with myself. I was so awesome. I loved telling people how many employees I had.
Then guess what happened? I made some more stupid decisions, and I lost it all again. I remember for a long time being really depressed about that. Then one time, I was in Mexico hanging out with some really cool marketers. There was this guy named Robert Hirsch. We were talking about our businesses, our careers, and our paths.
I was telling him about my two ups and downs in my business so far. He goes, “Oh good, you've cycled twice.” I go, “What do you mean?” He's like, “Yeah, you've cycled twice. I refuse to work with entrepreneurs who haven't cycled at least once.” I'm like, “What do you mean?”
He's like, “Every business has these ups and downs. When you have your first up, you think you're invincible and you drink your own Kool-Aid and you believe it.” He said, “I refuse to work with entrepreneurs that way because they still believe they're cooler than they are. They don't understand that there are so many things external from them that make them successful, and it's not themselves. They're not as cool as they think they are.”
He said, “The fact that you've cycled twice means that you hopefully have learned from the second time and the first time, and hopefully you don't think you're as cool as you think you are.” I remember when he said that, I was like, “You know what? That's pretty powerful.”
I think it's important to understand that. I've tried. Again, I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I've tried since my last cycle to be a lot more humble and to realize that it's not me. It's people around me. It's our customers. It's all these amazing things. I take it way more, I don't take it for granted. I'm a lot more appreciative.
I try to be careful when I make decisions now, and things like that. That concept has reared its head this week on the whole marketer's cruise. Before we went on the cruise, supposedly, I didn't even know this, but some guy messaged Brent on my team and said, “Hey, I'm going to be on the marketer's cruise. I’d love to meet you.”
Brent is like, “Cool, yeah, come find us, we'd love to meet you too.” That's where it left off. We're on this cruise, 700 other marketers mind you, plus 1300 guests, so 2000 people here. I first off didn't know who the guy was, didn't know he was supposed to meet us. Brent has messaged him on Facebook for 30 seconds maybe, didn't know his name or picture, just some guy.
I probably got at least 15 to 20 people before the cruise who said, “Hey, I want to meet you.” I'm like, “Alright, I'm there, come find me.” Supposedly, this guy was pissed off and upset because I didn't come and find him. Again, I have no idea who he is from Adam yet he obviously knows who I am.
Anyway, the last night I guess, he bumps into Todd, one of my partners in Click Funnels and was all yelling at him and pissed about the fact that we've been ignoring him. Todd is like, “I don't even know who you are. Who in the world are you?” so Todd tries to calm him down and everything.
I guess when all was said and done, all he really wanted was an affiliate link. Todd was like, “Okay, we'll get you an affiliate link.” Yesterday, this guy Facebooks Brent, yelling at him about how we all ignored him, how rude we were, and all this stuff. We're like, “We don't even know who you are. We were there every night talking. You know who we are. We had no idea who you are. Why wouldn't you come up and talk to us?”
He comes back and he's like, “No, it was not that you guys didn't know who I was. You were purposely ignoring me. I'm so big, I got this and this. I'm so famous, blah, blah,” all this stuff. It was so weird. I remember thinking back and saying, “Wow, this guy, because his ego is so big, because he thinks he's cooler than he is and because he believes that, he just missed out on some amazing opportunities.
Had he come up to me and said, “Hey Russell, I'm so-and-so. I messaged Brent. I’d love to meet you,” I probably would have hit it off and become good friends. I remember in the guy's Facebook message, he's also pissed because I did meet a really cool guy. There was this guy who runs a karate thing back east. His name is Jeff.
We hit it off. He's a jiu jitsu guy. I'm a wrestler. We actually wrestled twice. We went to the yoga room on a hardwood floor, laid out some yoga mats, and wrestled twice. I still have bruises on my knees and bruises on my neck from choking me out because we had so much fun, and hit it off with this guy.
Man, I love this guy, I love his family, I love everything about him. We're trying to help him and serve him, and how we can take his business and him to the next level. We're doing everything we can now to serve him because he didn't think he was cooler than he is. He's just a cool guy who got to know us at a personal level, and we got to know him, and had a great time with him.
Because of that, the relationship he's built, I would be shocked if the relationship we have with him now, if he doesn't make millions of dollars in the next couple of years from that. It wasn't because again, he was saying, “Oh, do you know who I am? I'm the biggest karate guy in the east.” He didn't do any of that. It was just because he was a cool guy.
It was just a reminder to me. I think about the people I deal with in business and I think about myself. I think about other people, and I just want to make sure everyone knows that you're not as cool as you think you are. This stuff is happening, these are blessings that have been given to us. Don't take those things for granted. Be grateful for them.
Never think that you're too big to talk to someone. Never think that people should acknowledge you and know who you are. It was funny, on the cruise, every person I met, I tried to introduce myself and say who I was because some people, it was funny, you see some people who are just like, “Oh, you don't know who I am?” and they walk away.
For me, I don't assume that people know who I am. I assume that they don't and I try to get to know them. It's just a better way to live. My encouragement for today, you guys, is understand first off that you're not cooler than you are. You probably are pretty cool but just remember that all entrepreneurs cycle.
If you haven't cycled yet, you're going to. If you're dumb like me, you'll cycle twice, and hopefully it doesn't happen to me a third time but I'm sure it might. I just want to be humble enough to accept it when it comes, and to dust myself off, get back up, and make sure I take care of other people around me so that when we go for the next round, the next cycle, the people that I love and care about are still there.
I hope that helps you guys. I hope you have an awesome day today. Go inspire people. Go change the world in your way, and see how you can serve people. If you do that, everything you want and need in life will come back to you. Thanks again, you guys. We'll talk to you on the next Marketing in Your Car.