Intimate, behind-the-scenes, message from Russell to Russell.
On this episode Russell talks about being under a lot of pressure and tries to coach himself through it before turning off “Business Russell mode” and turning on “Dad mode” for his kids’ Halloween activities.
Here are some interesting things you’ll hear in today’s episode:
So listen below to hear how Russell plans to relieve some of the pressure he’s currently under.
---Transcript---
Hey everyone this is Russell Brunson and I’m excited to have you here for Marketing In Your Car. It is Halloween, which is my favorite holiday and it’s one day that I look forward to most in the year. It’s funny because so far today has been a tough one. It’s 2:17 and I’m heading to the kids school for the Halloween parade that I’m really looking forward to, and then the Halloween stuff tonight.
I’m just curious, people always ask me all the time, “Russell, how do you get so much stuff done.” And I usually pride myself, I can usually handle a lot of weight on my shoulders, but today collapsed a little bit underneath that weight. I know we don’t normally talk about those kind of things, but I just want to kind of talk through it because it’ll make me feel better probably.
But on the other side, hopefully it helps you guys somehow. Who knows? It’s funny, Dan Gable, he’s the Michael Jordan of wrestling. I was watching a thing one time when he was coaching, you know he was one of the best wrestlers of all time, but also one of the best coaches of all time, of any sport. He won like 20 or 30 NCA championships in a row. Someone asked him I f he believes in pressure. He said, “Well I believe that pressure is there, I just don’t believe in putting myself underneath it.” I think for the most part, I try to take that approach. I’m not putting myself under pressure. Its there, but I’m dodging it. I’m getting around and we just keep moving forward. But today was one of those days where I thought I could get all just hit on my shoulders, and I just couldn’t handle it all. It’s actually good that I’m leaving.
It’s kind of crazy. We had the Inner Circle last week for 4 days, which is so much fun and I love it. It’s hard though at the same time, because it’s four day, pretty much 5, pretty much a whole week that you’re not in the office moving things forward, so there’s stuff happening, especially when you’re running a big company there’s a lot of stuff. And usually we have a couple of weeks between each mastermind, but this time, because the timing sucked, they had to be back to back. In fact, mastermind starts tomorrow. So basically I had one day today, well part of a day, til 2 to get it done, all of last week and all next week.
So basically after that I’m kind of out of commission again. I had a whole bunch of stuff I’m trying to get done. Today was like, “Hey Russell, you’re here.” And the brunt of everything is all falling and its tough because…..oh and then this weekend, we’re trying to get the Expert Secrets book done in time for the live event. And they told me to do that we’d have to have it all done in the next two weeks. Which means I have to have it all done this weeks, which means, we don’t have this week to do it. So I spent all day this weekend editing the book. I spent all day yesterday, and I spent half of today and so far I got the introduction and part of chapter one done. So I’m totally stressing about that because if I don’t have the book for the event, it throws off this huge timeline sequence of events around that, so that’s kind of crazy.
And then for my church, I’ve got two callings. I am the eleven year old scout master, and I’m also the secretary for a group called the Elders Quorum, so that’s two assignments. And then we called yesterday, they called us and asked if my wife and I would take on the ward Christmas party, which means basically you’re in charge of throwing a party for 500 people. Plus my wife also has the company Christmas party a week after that. So it’s like, there’s new pressure there.
If I told you all the things I’m doing, most people wouldn’t believe me. There’s a whole bunch of stuff on the Clickfunnels side. There’s a whole bunch of stuff on the sales side. I’ve got tons of Inner Circle members messaging me questions. It’s fun, I love going back and forth but sometimes it adds up. Right now I’ve got probably 30 messages from Inner circle members on Voxer that I’m behind. Half of them will be here tomorrow so I’m stressing, trying to catch up on those.
And then the Funnel Hacker TV episodes we’ve been filming, it feels like a lot of the entrepreneurs we’re doing stuff for coming back needing help and getting stuck and can’t move through the process and need me to rewrite webinars or review things or check things. And then I got, I feel bad, one of the guys on my team, he wrote a book and wanted me to write the forward for, and I’ve been telling him for two or three months I was going to, but I haven’t had time. So today he was asking me about that, and to meet about something else. All these things and it was just like, all these things just came to a point today where I was like, “I don’t know what to do.”
So yes, I feel pressure. Yes, some day’s it’s tough. Some day’s it’s really, today was really tough. Not gonna lie. It’s funny because I’m so excited to go see my kids in the parade, but I’m feeling guilty because of that. I have so much to do, but what’s the point of doing any of it if I can’t go to my kids Halloween play? That’s kind of where I’m at right now. But I don’t want anyone to be concerned about me.
It’s funny, any time I do a podcast where I kind of rant a little bit, seems like I always get people messaging me trying to help. It’s not that I need that; I just need a place to vent. And hopefully it gives you guys whatever it is you need. Because I know all you guys go through that as well. We all do it, where there’s so many things happening. I’m the king of over committing. I get so excited by things so I say, “Yes, I’ll do this.” And it gets to a point where I can’t handle it all.
Anyway, so before I left the office, there’s a couple of things. I tried to buy myself an extra two weeks on the book, which is relieving pressure. I haven’t heard back, but I just kind of trying to go back to all these commitments that I have and place more realistic timelines, and cutting some things out and do things like that. And it’ll be good. By the time we’ve got mastermind this week, which again, I’m so excited. Two groups are coming, it’s going to be nice. For me to just unplug and stop stressing about everything and just hang out with some amazing entrepreneurs.
It’s funny, I don’t normally care about politics too much, even the stress of this election. Because I’m stressed out if either side wins. I don’t want either of those, the election’s coming. I’m really excited to hang out with entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world, for the next four days. I’m looking forward to that, and it’s going to be good.
I’m just going to kind of…..I think one of the problems that I have, one of the things that make me good at what I do, it also becomes one of the constraints, is I’m really good at placing…I’ve talked about this a lot in different trainings. Lead or Gold. I set deadlines for myself of when things have to happen. Sometimes I forget in my mind that I set those deadlines, and they’re not actual deadlines. So I think it’s me coming back to a lot of my lead or gold deadlines for things I have and re-shifting them, which is against what I tell you guys to do. It’s like, set a lead or gold deadline and don’t deviate from it unless you’re going to kill yourself. I tell you guys that because it’s true for me. When I set a deadline, this has to happen this day. It HAS to happen that day.
It becomes so real for me, that I put myself in insane amounts of pressure because of that. For me, things come back and I just got to tonight, hopefully get some extensions like on the book and a couple of things like that. And then kind of reset some timelines. I gotta get better at telling people no. I get so excited about opportunities and everything that I just say yes to things way too easy. So I gotta get better at the magic word no.
I feel like I’m coaching myself. If one of my Inner Circle members voxed me the last 7 minutes, I know exactly how I’d coach them. So I’m kind of coaching myself as if I’m me. “So Russell, the first thing I would do is, you gotta set realistic expectations. I know you think you’re the man, but you’re not. You can’t survive everything. The second thing I would do is, you gotta go back to the people you made commitments to and you gotta tell some people no, and it’s going to be hard, and it’s going to hurt their feelings sometimes. But it’s not personal, and you know it’s not. You just have to tell them it’s not and you love them. It’s just not possible. You’re going to crack and everything will fall apart for you and for everybody if you don’t. So that’s the second thing I would do.
The third thing, Russell, that you should do is, you need to get your book extension. If you’ve got to pay more money, whatever it takes to just tell them that you gotta make the extension and that you will pay whatever it takes to make that work. And that money will hopefully help solve that problem, get that out of the way. With these other people, you’re working with in Funnel Hacker TV. Remember these are businesses you’re helping with; you’re not doing those businesses, so you need to put the owners back on them. Get them to work harder, get them to think through things. You can’t answer every question for them. And they need to understand that. Let them kind of run with it and just do it. And that’s going to help them grow more. You’re so stressed about them making money that you forget that it’s not about money, it’s about growth for them. And if they don’t grow, every time you take your eye off the focus, it’s all going to collapse on them again. Help them understand that.
Leverage people on your team, everyone wants to help you, and sometimes you’re scared to ask for help because you know that everyone is doing so much anyway and you just think you can add it to your plate and not worry about it, but they’re there to support you and help you so make sure you leverage them. Because again, if you’re not able to handle this, it’s really bad for all of them. They’ve put their lives, and hearts and soul into it as well and it’s important that they do what they need to do and you do what you need to do. And they want you to be there. So those are the things I’d recommend Russell. I hope that helps. We’ll talk soon.”
So that’s how I’d vox myself. So there’s my advice for myself. Hopefully take it for yourself as well. I actually feel a lot better just saying that out loud. So thank you guys for bearing with me. The other things that’s interesting, we talk about hiring consultants all the time and it’s funny, we’re always like, “Well if we’re going to hire a sales consultant, what would we tell ourselves?” And usually we know all the answers. You guys just saw me do it here live, I just consulted myself. You should try consulting yourself the next time you have an issue and you’ll probably solve all your problems.
So with that said, I’m at school. I’m about to run in and go see my kids dressed up as Halloween costumes, which is going to amazing and a ton of fun. And everything else is going to fade away and I’m going to get into a state and be with my kids and family right now. Business Russell is turning off because none of that stuff actually matters, and Dad is turning on because that’s what matters.
With that said, you guys don’t forget the famous quote from David O McKay. “No success can compensate for failure in the home.” So go to your kids Halloween parties, have some fun. Talk to you guys all again soon.