A trick that my kids use to dominate the world.
On this episode Russell talks about his kids using “Yolo” to do things they otherwise wouldn’t do and how we can use that same mantra in our businesses to get rid of self doubt.
Here are some fun things in this episode:
So listen below to hear how Russell’s kids taught him about not letting self doubt ruin inspiration.
---Transcript---
Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson, welcome back to Marketing In Your Car. Today I am actually sitting in my kitchen. The kitchen that all the wood is completely warped from our flood. All my wife and kids are out in the hot tub except for Norah who decided she didn’t want to hot tub. So we are standing here and I’m supposed to be feeding her dinner because she’s hungry, but instead she’s eating a popsicle. That is called good parenting, because it’s the only way to get her to stop crying. So yes, I should teach a parenting course someday. If your kids are crying, just give them a popsicle. Oh man, some days it’s really hard to be a parent. But those days you just give them a popsicle and it becomes easy again. Just kidding.
Parenting advice aside, because nobody wants that right now. But I do want to talk about something really super cool. Because we’re in the hot tub, it’s been snowing, Boise has been Boise Snowpocolypse, or whatever you want to call it. The last week we’ve had 3 or 4 feet of snow and then it rained another foot and everything was soaked, and my house was flooding. Oh and today we were filming a testimonial video in my front room and I walked on the carpet and the carpet is soaking wet and I looked at the wall and there’s water seeping behind the paint of our wall. Anyway, it’s a total disaster nightmare. Not gonna lie.
But the one nice thing is that the Hot tub is good no matter what. So we’re out in the hot tub in the snow, and we’ve pretty much hot tubbed everyday. Man, we had 5 snow days in a row, almost 10 days in a row between Christmas break and this and everything, we’ve been hot tubbing a lot. And it’s fun because the hot tub is surrounded by tons and tons and tons of snow. So the first day you hot tub everyone’s like, “Oooh it’s so cold.” And they’ll touch the snow a little bit and try little things. Take little snow balls and throw them at each other and then dive back into the water. Now it’s insane because they do these things, and this is kind of the point of today’s message.
So I was there yesterday with the kids and they’re jumping up and screaming and running around our house, which is a pretty long distance in the snow. First they were doing one lap, then two, then three. Now they’re doing four laps around the house and then they dive back into the water. And then they’re doing snow angels, front and back and then back in the water. And they’re running across the yard, onto the trampoline, doing snow angels on the trampoline and jumping and run back and dive in.
All these crazy things. Stuff that’s super painful and super crazy, and they keep doing them over and over again. And what’s interesting and this is the point, before they go, every single time, they’re like, “Hey, let’s do it.“ and they’re all like, “But it’s so cold.” And then Dallin, I think Dallin who started this, he’s the one, he always says, “Yolo.” And he jumps up and takes off.
So it’s like everyone’s freezing. No one wants to get in the cold snow, but then Dallin goes “Yolo.” jumps up, steps in the snow and sprints probably I don’t know 500 yards in the snow in around our house a bunch of times and then dives back in. I was like, “What are you, when you’re yelling, what are you yelling out?” he said, “Yolo.” I was like, “What does yolo mean?” “You only live once.” And then he goes, “Yolo.” And jumps up and takes off and runs out in the snow again.
I was kind of laughing, actually he said, “You only live once so spend it or live it stupidly.” I don’t know what it was, and then he takes off. So all the kids, every time they’re about to do something crazy that they normally wouldn’t do, they look at that challenge, run across the snow, do a snow angel, a front snow angel and back, three somersaults in the snow and run back and dive in. They sit there and you know when you want to do something cool, there’s that moment of like, “Huh, I can’t do that.” And the second that moment comes to them, they yell out “Yolo” and boom, they just go.
And I was like, how cool is that? This is way harder, what they’re doing, than what we’re trying to do in business every day. Yet, we come up with plan and this idea and this obstacle and we’re like, “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” And all the sudden your brain starts talking to you and your brains like, “You can’t do that. You’re Russell Brunson, you barely graduated high school. You’re super awkward, when you talk people won’t know why you came to talk to people.” All these things start flooding into your mind.
What happens to most of us is we sit there like, “Man, you’re right. I am just Russell Brunson. I’m really not that good. I barely graduated from school. Yeah when I get in a group and I talk one on one with people I have no idea. I feel awkward, I don’t know what to say most of the time.” And all these thoughts keep flooding your head and if you listen to them long enough, you start believing them and you have so much fear and anxiety when there are things there, you just don’t take that action.
And I think what’s interesting, is that they’re flooding their mind with, as soon as those things start coming up, “Yolo.” Boom, they just take off and they go. I think for all of us, if we start doing that think how powerful that would be. If just every time something comes to us, like an idea, when we have that idea, that inspiration, and I think those inspirations aren’t just from our brain. I wish that I was that smart, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s coming from on high. I think that you can call it whatever you want, for me it’s my Heavenly Father. I think we are inspirations we get from him. “Hey you should try this thing. Hey you should take this leap of faith. Hey you should go talk to this person. Hey you should create this. Hey you should test…..” Whatever those things are.
Those are gifts that we’re getting and it’s like, okay go do it and all the fear and self doubt comes in and stops it most of the time. If we start becoming like my insane kids are, and the second you have the idea and you know it’s right, because you know it pretty quick. Should I do this, yes I should. Oh but…..as soon as that, right before that but comes off, yell out at the top of your lungs, if you’re in a spot where you can, if not say it in your head as loud as you can, “Yolo.” Y O L O, you only live once. “Yolo.” And just go, just run, just sprint, don’t even think because once that inspirations coming to you, it’s there and if you believe like I do, it was given to you from a higher power, whatever that might be for you, then you’re hesitation to that is, and I believe in an adversary. There’s God and there’s the opposite side of that, there’s Satan or whatever you want to call it, that tries to take things from us.
So as soon as you have this inspiration, “This is what I need to do.” The adversary is going to come and start self doubt and try to keep you from doing that thing that could change your life and change other people’s lives. So I think one of the most powerful things we can do is yell out, “Yolo.” The second we get inspiration and start running, just sprint.
Ellie just walked in, I’m going to ask her. Hey Ellie, what does Yolo mean to you guys when you say “Yolo” and start running in the snow?
Ellie: I don’t know.
Russell: You don’t know? What does it stand for?
Ellie: I can’t remember.
Russell: You don’t….
Ellie: Wait….you only live once or something like that.
Russell: You only live once. Then tell us some of the crazy stuff you guys are doing after you yell Yolo.
Ellie: we were walking in the snow.
Russell: She’s being all shy now. Let me ask Bowen. Bowen just came in. Hey Bowen, what does Yolo mean to you?
Bowen: You only live once.
Russell: So what are the things you do when you yell Yolo, what do you do?
Bowen: Dallin says spend it, you only have one life so spend it stupidly. He actually told me what it says and I’m like, oh that makes sense. (kind of inaudible, this is a guess.)
Russell: Then what do you do, you say Yolo, then what kind of crazy things do you do?
Bowen: Jump in the snow, ankles hurt to death.
Ellie: It’s fun.
Russell: It’s fun? How many times did you run around the house?
Bowen: 5 times.
Russell: 5 times.
Ellie: When our cousins were here I went two times around the house.
Russell: Does Yolo help you to not freak out when it gets cold? What does it help you do?
Bowen: It kills you.
Russell: Oh it kills you. So Yolo is the challenge. There it is from the mouths of kids. So that’s what I want to recommend, start thinking about that, think Yolo. When you get that inspiration that you know what’s right, before the self doubt, the adversary, whatever it is that you think, whatever it is, I don’t care. But things start popping into your head about why you can’t or shouldn’t or you’re probably not worthy to do it. Whatever those things pop up, just shout Yolo at the top of your lungs and start running. That’s the key.
And it hurts right? Did you hear that. Tell them, it hurts right.
Kids: I get tons of scratches. It was before the acid rains….
Russell: it was before the acid rains. But was it worth it?
Kids: running around the house before was softer.
Russell: Before the snow hardened it was more worth it?
Kid: Yeah.
Russell: Ellie says it was worth it though, right? You only live once, you might as well do it. Otherwise, think if you didn’t do it, would you regret it?
Kid: Yeah
Russell: You would regret it?
Kid: I’d still be running around the house if the snow wasn’t that hard. I mean, it would be a lot more fun.
Russell: Would you regret it if you yelled Yolo and sat in the hot tub, would you regret it?
Kid: yeah, because I’d be burning to death.
Russell: Because the hot tub’s too hot. Plus your life would be boring. Would your life be boring if you did nothing and just sat there the whole time?
Kid: inaudible.
Russell: Alright, they’re being goofy now. Alright, so Yolo, you guys. That is the message for today. Tattoo it on your forehead, on your hand, on your t-shirt. No tattoos though. Temporary tattoos?
Kid: yeah.
Russell: K you can do temporary tattoos. Anyway…
Ellie: Or permanent marker.
Russell: or Ellie says permanent marker, not permanent marker. Just a marker you can do it with. I don’t know if you heard Ellie, if you take a shower it will wash off. Anyway, the key though is, when the self doubt comes, after the inspiration comes and the self doubt comes, Yolo. Run, get out of the hot tub and start running before your brain can talk you out of it. Because it will if you’re not careful. So Yolo. Appreciate you guys. Have a great day and we’ll talk to you soon.