
Loading summary
Russell Brunson
At Lowe's. Pros save big on the supplies you need to get the job done with the new Mylo's Pro rewards program. Get member only deals every week and access to free standard shipping. Plus members earn points toward exclusive rewards. Join for free today Lowes we help you save. Points are awarded on eligible purchases. Programs subject to terms and conditions. Free standard shipping not available in Alaska and Hawaii. Exclusions and more terms apply. Details@lowe's.com Terms subject to change. I was never really a runner.
Eric Thain
The way I see running is a gift, especially when you have stage four cancer. I'm Ann.
Russell Brunson
I'm running the Boston Marathon presented by bank of America. I run for Dana Farber Cancer Institute to give people like me a chance to thrive in life, even with cancer. Join bank of America in helping Anne's cause.
Eric Thain
Give if you can@b of a.com supportann.
Russell Brunson
What would you like the power to do? References to charitable organizations is not an.
Eric Thain
Endorsement by bank of America Corporation.
Russell Brunson
Copyright 2025. Now obviously if you want to sell stuff online, you're going to need a good funnel. But if you want a great funnel, then you're going to need to use ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is the number one funnel builder in the world, helping more first time entrepreneurs to leave their 9 to 5 and to launch their dream than any other company on earth. ClickFunnels was built for the dreamer and the doer. And you can get a free 14 day trial by going to clickfunnels.com podcast. Right now. That's clickfunnels.com podcast click funnels because you're one funnel away from changing the world.
Eric Thain
This is the Russell Brunson Show.
Russell Brunson
Hey, this is Russell. Welcome back to the show. I'm excited. I've got somebody in studio, in office today. We're gonna be talking about his new book launch, his process, a whole bunch of other really cool things. And so we're gonna be talking today for any of you guys who are creators who are trying to put your message out there and you probably have a webinar or a challenge or something, but you're struggling at getting traffic. How do you get more traffic into your funnels? What's a cool, easy way and a fun way to do that? And so my guest, I'm excited, he's local to Boise, so you know, he's awesome, number one. But number two, he's also been involved in our coaching programs for I don't.
Eric Thain
Know how long, for almost a decade.
Russell Brunson
For a decade, he's been involved in our programs and the story we're going to tell today and his new book coming out. I'm really excited because I didn't know this part of the story until I had you speak at Mastermind of Paradise in Mexico and you first kind of told your story about how you discovered this and how it came about and how everything shifted for you. And anyway, so we're going to go deep into that story because when I found out about that after that and you spoke of funnel hacking live and spoke. You told this story a bunch of times for our people. And I'm excited to share on the podcast. But our guest name, his name is Eric Thain. If you haven't met Eric yet, this is Eric and he's got a brand new book called Create Don't Capture, which is just, it's just launching right now. How's the book launch been going so far?
Eric Thain
Yeah, it's going great. We're just kind of in the middle of it right now, so it's super cool.
Russell Brunson
And depending when this comes out, he's. Do I talk about the limited edition? Because this is kind of a cool thing you're doing that may be relevant to people who are listening, but may already be sold out.
Eric Thain
Yeah, I think this is, I mean, it's kind of unique and it's a little bit different, but the title of the book is Create Don't Capture and it's about really creating instead of just like going through the motions of doing like what you're supposed to do. Right. And so when we were launching the book, I was like, I can't just like throw the book on Amazon and sell it for 20 bucks. Like, this needs something special. So we did this limited edition version of it and depending on when this podcast goes out, you might be able. There might be one left, you might be able to get one, you might not. But you can go check it out.
Russell Brunson
A.
Eric Thain
It's a very limited run and so.
Russell Brunson
In limitation they come with a dust jacket and everything. Right. And like. Anything else special about the limited edition?
Eric Thain
Yeah, well, we spent a lot of time and effort. It's just like this unique design and something really unique and nice. It's a nice hardbound cover. They're all signed, ready to go. And so. So you can get one of those. It also comes with this, the creator's journal, which is brand new, which we haven't told anybody about until just recently, which is a process that I go through daily to like increase creativity and get into flow and. And just like become a Creator and share more and teach more. So there's that. Of course, when those are all gone, then they're gone. And then we'll go. You can go get the normal book then. But. And for now, those are available.
Russell Brunson
So we'll do a more formal call to action at the end. But for anyone, like, where can they get this? And see if the limitations are available.
Eric Thain
Yeah, just create don't capture dot com.
Russell Brunson
Create don't capture dot com. Okay, but that said, let's jump into, like, what. I want to actually go deep on it, which is the process. So first off, I'd love for you to tell a story even before the Mexico, like, where you kind of started creating this stuff, you know, the year before you spoke, Tell some of the background because you were publishing stuff prior to you ever teaching in these kind of things. Like, where did it all start for you?
Eric Thain
Yeah, so I got. When I got started in the online game, I was running a business, teaching filmmakers, and I was coaching filmmakers. I had courses, and everything was on lighting and cinematography and all those things, and it was great. But the entire business was built on Facebook ads. Like, I had learned how to create Facebook ads from my first original mentor, who was like. Like, do it this way. Set up a funnel this way. He got me into click funnels. And then I started building the stuff and. And it was all going great. And, you know, you remember the early days of Facebook ads. Like, you could sell. You could sell anything.
Russell Brunson
I go back in time. Can you imagine, like, what we know now? Like, it was Christmas. We didn't.
Eric Thain
And we didn't even know how good we had it. But you could sell a box of rocks on Facebook with ads and it would sell, right? And so we were selling stuff like crazy. It was amazing. And there was always this thing of, like, I would listen to you or go to FHL or whatever, and people are always like, you need to publish content. You need to build your brand. You need to publish every day, create content. And I remember hearing that and going, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I need to. But, like, it's hard. It takes time. It's. It's like, why would I do that when I could just go spend a little bit of money on ads and get a 4x return and grow my business that way. And so it wasn't that I didn't know how to create content. I had done it for a lot of other people. We had. You know, before all of this, we had done over 500 million views on YouTube back when a view actually meant Something, right? Because nowadays it's just like somebody scrolls past your video and they count as a view. But on YouTube, it was like they had to spend a significant amount of time watching it for it to even count as a view. And so we did a lot of viral videos for clients, and I'd always been into video production and design and branding and all that kind of stuff. So we had done all that. I knew how to do it. But sometimes you are really good at helping other people with something, but then, like, you just kind of neglect yourself.
Russell Brunson
It's like the shoemaker's son has no shoes or something.
Eric Thain
Yeah, exactly. So, like, I didn't have shoes as the equivalent. I didn't create my own brand. I didn't create my own content. And so already on Facebook, ads, business growing, everything was great. Although I did watch my competitors who were focused, like, hyper focused on creating YouTube channels and creating content. I watched them taking off, like, so much faster than me because their. Their relationship was like, actually a relationship of value with their audience versus like mine, which is very transactional and just constantly selling through ads. And I noticed that. But, you know, I didn't know what to do, and I didn't have time to create content. So I kept running the business. And it wasn't until, you know, there was the moment when Facebook ads got all messed up and got expensive. And there was a whole thing that happened with Apple and Facebook and the iPhone. They started putting those notifications on it. And then worse, it got worse, and it's continued to get worse since then, and it just got a lot harder. And there was a period of time there where my costs got so high that it just. It just completely shattered my business. Like, we went from millions in revenue to like $100,000 in debt, like, what felt like overnight. And it was a really hard time. It was around Christmas time, like, my favorite time of the year. I love Christmas. And, like, I spent the entire holiday locked up in a room, like, working on the business, just grinding, trying to figure things out. And I remember, like, sitting around just going like, this is not what I signed up for. Like, this isn't. This isn't what I wanted. This isn't. Like, I got into this business, I had a dream for, like, a lifestyle that I wanted to build and who I wanted to help and what I wanted to do with it. And, you know, your why is usually a big part of that. And my why was like, to support my family and to build this thing. And yet here I was trying so hard to Serve that why. But then neglecting the why at the same time, I was like, this doesn't make sense. This isn't right. And so that was kind of the catalyst for me where I was like, I have to change something. I can't do this anymore. This isn't working anymore. And so then it was at Mastermind in Paradise the first year that I remember I was sitting there and trying to figure out what to do. Like I had already RSVP and bought the tickets. So we were there but like I couldn't afford to be there. Like it was, it was bad. And I remember sitting there and just having this idea, this epiphany kind of came to me that like, I need to turn off my Facebook ads. Like we've been trying to make it work, but it's not working. So what if we just cut that off completely and go all in on content? Short form videos, right? Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts. And I didn't know if it was going to work. I didn't know what was going to happen. But I, I made the shift. We shut off our Facebook ads. It was right there at that event that I made my first three videos, made them, got home, continued making content. It was a grind for a little while making those videos. And then it was about month five of making daily video content that my account started taking. It started working. Everything was growing. We're starting to make money from it. And we completely replaced what we were doing in revenue before when we were spending 40 to $50,000 a month on ads now just completely from organic. And that was what happened. And then that was why I ended up the next year at Mastermind in Paradise is when you invited me to come speak on stage. And so then I was there actually.
Russell Brunson
Telling everybody it was cool too, because you told again. I knew what you were doing and saw the results, but I didn't know. And you told the story. You're like, I was here last year, I couldn't afford to be here. And I went out to the step. You showed the picture, the steps right here. I record the video started and that's like where it all began. And then 12 months later, how, how much has transformed is. Is really cool.
Eric Thain
Yeah, crazy. And so then to be on stage then teaching that formula was amazing. And then of course, you know, we did, I started doing some videos for you and then for a bunch of other people. And then we did fhl and then I launched the book and then all everything.
Russell Brunson
And here we are today.
Eric Thain
Here we are on Russell's podcast.
Russell Brunson
It's so. It's so cool. So when you first started it, the first videos you made in Mexico, did you have a formula or a process where you just making video? Like, how did it. From the very beginning, part of how.
Eric Thain
Did it start, I didn't. I literally didn't know what I was doing. I was just like, I see people making these short form videos. Like, they're talking and teaching principles on it. I'm gonna try that. I'm gonna just. I'm gonna do it. And so I'd seen enough of them to kind of like get the flow. But the first few videos I made, like, they weren't good. They were. They were shot on a phone, like.
Russell Brunson
Just on your channel. Can we scroll backwards?
Eric Thain
Yeah, they're still there. Yep. Yeah, they, they were shot on a phone. They weren't like high production or anything. Like, I remember looking for. I was trying to find like a nice backdrop at the resort, which is a beautiful resort. So that wasn't hard. But I was actually looking for a place where nobody would see me doing it because I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed to make these videos and for somebody to see me, like with my wife standing there with her phone, like recording me and I'm like talking to the camera. I've always been a behind the camera guy. I'm a filmmaker, right? So being in front of the camera was just weird for me. But I did it. I got them over with. I only made three. I was like, that's enough. I did three. Okay. So I made the three videos and I didn't know what I was doing. And it was over time that I started to kind of develop the formula. I started to figure out what was working because for the first two months of making the videos, I was actually losing followers every day.
Russell Brunson
I'm offending everybody with my content.
Eric Thain
I'm like, they hate this. They like, people didn't like it or whatever. Like, I mean, there were followers, I was gaining followers, but I was losing more followers. So clearly, like, it was different from what I had done in the past. And all the people that have followed me before were like, this guy changed. I'm moving on. And that's a hard thing to like commit to something like this and then see your follower count dropping and then. And then to like, continue.
Russell Brunson
Yeah, with bail. And like, this is not working.
Eric Thain
Yeah. Well, most people go for like two weeks and they see it working and then they give up. Right? Because like, oh, that's a lot of work. Right. I can Just spend money on ads. So. But I kept going because I didn't have another choice. I burned the boats, like Facebook ads. I was like, I'm done with those. And so it continued going. And then it was through a process of like, I knew that in order for it to work, I needed to get better and better at it. And the way to do that was to watch the performance of my videos, pay attention to what was working, and do more of that, and then pay attention to what wasn't working, and do less of that. I'm like, if I just follow that formula, this should work. Eventually we'll figure it out at some point. And that was what happened. And it was through a process of looking through all of my past videos that were working, the ones that popped off the outliers, you know, if I was getting a few hundred views, what was the one that got a thousand views? And why did that work? And started reverse engineering that. And that was when I discovered this framework that I kind of followed. And I was like, oh, if I do this every single time, the videos perform a lot better and they have a lot better chance of going viral or getting more views. And ultimately that's of course, what we want. And then. And so I started kind of following that formula and I started doing it. And then it was when, when you asked me to come speak at Mastermind in Paradise and I was preparing the presentation, this is the first time I was going to teach it publicly. I started thinking about it. I was like, how can I present this in a way that would be interesting to Russell's people, that they would, that would, that would make it click, that they would get it and want to start doing it. And then I realized at that moment, I was like, oh, this is kind of like a perfect webinar, but in 60 seconds, right? Usually they're 90 minutes. But like, the perfect webinar is like the best selling framework ever for any type of content or anything, not just a webinar, right? You use it for speaking, for live events, for everything. And I was like, oh, what if I taught it like this, where it's a 60 second perfect webinar and you basically go through a hook and a story and a point and an offer, right? And let's take or three secrets in an offer. And so that was when I taught it at Mastermind in Paradise as the 62nd perfect webinar. And that just caught on. Like, people really resonated that idea. I don't remember at the event. Like, I spoke Friday night and Then Saturday, everyone was around the resort making videos. Everybody was out there doing it.
Russell Brunson
Everyone, they're trying to find the same spot. Like, where did he do his at? There's got to be something secret about that area. Yeah, that's crazy. Well, it's fun for me because again, after, like, again, I was there. It clicked for me too. And then we hired you and you wrote I don't know how many you did. 50 or 100 or however many.
Eric Thain
Yeah, we shot like 50 in a day, didn't we?
Russell Brunson
Yeah, it was brutal. I remember because Eileen. Eileen was doing at the same time we were competing back and forth. Because I remember Eileen and messaged me. She's like, I did work with Eric's team. We did. I can't remember, like 30 today. I almost died. And then. So I had my first shot. I think we did 50 that day.
Eric Thain
I have to do more.
Russell Brunson
And I messaged her and then she came. And I remember because I was.
Eric Thain
I was done.
Russell Brunson
I was like, I was toast after that. And then like a week later, she's like, I did 51 today. I was like, that record will stand forever. I have no desire to go back and do that.
Eric Thain
We actually literally planned that because we had a. There was one month where she wasn't able to film. And we're like, well, we'll just do a double shoot next month and we'll beat Russell's record. So we did 51. Yeah.
Russell Brunson
It's funny because she, like, I'm so hyper competitive. She's not hyper competitive. But she still, just to stick it to me, had to beat me. So.
Eric Thain
Yeah. Yeah.
Russell Brunson
That's so awesome. So let's walk through the process a little bit more. Cause obviously I know both of us in the perfect webinar. But walk through, if you're looking at a 60 second thing, what does that structure kind of look like? So people may not be as familiar with the perfect webinar or whatever just to get an idea.
Eric Thain
Yeah. So this is the formula that every viral video follows. And I've gone and I've studied it and I've reverse engineered it. And there's a lot of different types of viral content. There's funny videos or entertaining videos, or there's educational videos. But this is especially effective. I mean, you can see this formula even in the silly videos, right, that go viral. But it's especially effective for somebody who's like, if you're a creator, if you're an entrepreneur and you're trying to get a message out there, it's a Way to grab people's attention, get them to pay attention to what you're talking about, narrow their focus in on what you do and what you can help them with and provide value and build trust with them, and then give them a call to action to go actually do something about it. Which, if you think about it, that's the whole point of business, is to get people's attention, kind of teach them something, and then get them to take action on that.
Russell Brunson
Story offer sounds.
Eric Thain
Story offer. Right. Yeah. So that's the idea is like, can you do that? And the formula is built on human psychology. And what makes that happen. Now, there's a lot of layers of depth to this. Like, I built a whole course on it that teaches the entire process because it's. Because there's a lot to it. But the basic framework we'll talk about right now, because if you just take what you know and what you're good at and you put it into what I call the language of social media. See, most people just show up and they just start talking, like, and teaching. But then it's not like, working for the type of content that people want to consume. And so if you just put it into this formula, it instantly works better. It instantly performs better. We get. I get comments all the time from people that are like, I did my first one, and it got three times as many views as I normally get or ten times as many views. Sometimes they go viral immediately. And so it's about putting it into this formula so that it can work. So here's the formula. The first thing you start with is a hook. Every piece of content needs to start with a hook. Now, if you're in Russell's world, like, you understand hooks, right? Because you talk about hooks all the time. And a lot of times there are hooks for a webinar, for presentation, or for an offer and everything. But the hook in content kind of comes before that, right? The hook is not just here's this thing that I do or presenting in an interesting way. It's like, I just need to grab people's attention. So it can be a visual hook, it can be an editing hook, like a zoom effect, or. We did one video for you where you were wearing a shirt, right?
Russell Brunson
Russell's wearing a tie.
Eric Thain
Russell's wearing a tie. Like, you don't see that very often. And so that was the hook, right? But it's got to be something that's going to grab someone's attention to get them to stop. Because if you're. You could have the Best content in the world. The most valuable thing. If you can't get somebody to stop scrolling and pay attention to what you're doing, then nobody's ever going to see it.
Russell Brunson
And I always visualize that as someone sitting there on the couch or on the toilet, like just scrolling as fast and like how, like, what's the hook that's strong enough? They're gonna be like, whoa, what is that? You know, and click the button and.
Eric Thain
It could be a visual thing, it could be an editing thing, it could be what you say it could be. It could be something you say that speaks so deeply to a pain point that they have that they go, I gotta know the solution to this. I gotta know what they're gonna say about it. That's those are the best hooks. Honestly, they're not like trying too hard. It's just like it speaks to that person. So. So the hook, super important.
Russell Brunson
If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know, I always talk about, as you're growing and scaling your company, the most important thing is finding the whole, not the how. Who is the person that can help you drive more traffic? Who is the person that could be your CEO? Who is the person that could build your funnels? Understanding the who will dramatically speed up the growing and the scaling of your company. Now the best place to find the who's who can help you with your vision is Indeed. When it comes to hiring, the right who's Indeed is all you need. Indeed gives you the ability to stop struggling to get your job post seen on other sites. Because Indeed's got a sponsored job listing where you can stand out in front of your dream hires. With these sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates. That means your funnel builder is going to see it. That means the person driving traffic your funnels is going to see it means your new CEO or CMO or whatever you're looking for is going to see the exact ad for your business as soon as they open up. Indeed. And that makes a huge difference. In fact, according to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. One of the things I love about Indeed is it makes hiring so fast. You can post the job and within minutes you're getting applications who are coming in looking to become the who inside of your business. Prior to that, I was often posting my help wanted ads on Facebook and Instagram and then getting tons and tons of responses from unqualified people who had no idea what they were doing. Whereas Indeed, again, they're only being seen by the exact person I'm looking to hire now. With Indeed sponsored jobs, there's no monthly subscriptions, there's no long term contracts. You only pay for results. They may be wondering how fast is Indeed. Well, in the minute I've been talking to you. So far, 23 hires were made on Indeed across the Indeed network. So there's no longer need to wait any longer. You can speed up your hiring right now by going to Indeed. And listeners of the Show Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your job more visible by going to indeed.com clicks just go to indeed.com C L I C K S right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com clicks, terms and conditions apply. Are you hiring? Indeed is all you need. Do you ever get one of those ads that makes you go, why am I even seeing this? Not long ago, I kept getting served ads for these super fancy chef grade pots and pans like premium artisan cookware. And I'm sitting here thinking, you guys, I barely even know how to boil water properly. I'm more of a protein bar and a podcast guy. Now, I'm not knocking the product. It just wasn't meant for me. And the real problem is that the company probably paid good money to show me that ad. And that's why I always tell marketers that relevance is everything. And that's where LinkedIn ads comes in. This isn't your average ad platform. It's a network of over a billion professionals. And targeting options are insane. You can target the exact buyers by job title, industry, company size, role, seniority, even skills, and company revenue. That means your message gets in front of the right people, not someone who thinks that instant ramen is gourmet dining. Now, if you're serious about B2B marketing and not just throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping it'll stick, then you've got to be on LinkedIn. And here's the best part. LinkedIn will give you $100 credit on your next campaign. So you can see it in action. Just go to LinkedIn.com clicks that's LinkedIn.com C L I C K s. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
Eric Thain
Now, once you hook their attention, the biggest mistake that people make is they go straight into the content. Okay, so if you think about a hook as creating a question. So a hook might be like, here's the. Here's the top three ways to make your Instagram account blow up, right? That creates a question in the person's mind, what are the top three ways? Right? So the hook creates a question. The content. The point of the content is to answer that question, but you don't want to answer it right away, because if you do, the moment they get the answer, they move on to the next thing, especially if you haven't given them, like, an understanding of why this is important. So that's why. After the hook comes the why. Now the why is where you actually spend time diving into, like, the background of where this comes from or the context or what you need to know in order for this to make sense. It's kind of like, you know, you talk about how to. How to wrap your principles and your points in your webinar in stories, okay? Because by telling the story, it makes the point more valuable, and it makes people more likely to actually do something about it. If you just told people, like, hey, you should build a webinar, they're gonna be like, okay, right? And maybe none of them will do it. But if you tell a story about how you built a webinar and it blew up your business, and then you say you need to build a webinar, how many more people are actually gonna do it, right? Cause it's wrapped in that story. And so that's where you give the context behind what it is. And so it's like, here's three content tips for growing your Instagram this year. And instead of going, number one is this, you go. The way that I learned this was because I was doing xyz, I was struggling, I didn't know what to do, and I figured this out, and when I did it, my account blew up. So you guys want to know what it is? All right, here we go. Number one is this. So this is doing two things for you. Number one is it's driving home the value of what you're about to share so that they go, oh, wow, they could see how valuable this is. And number two, it's increasing your watch time. Because in content, watch time is super important. The longer, the bigger percentage of your video that somebody watches, the better it's going to perform in the algorithm. And so you're. You've caught somebody's attention. Once you've got somebody's attention, you just bought yourself, like, probably 5, 10, 15 seconds in short form video to where they're like, okay, I'll bite. I'll give this a little bit of time. I'll pay attention to this thing. So you want to use those 10 or 15 seconds, very wisely to really drive home the value of what you're about to say. And if you do that correctly after those 10 or 15 seconds, now they're really hooked. Now they're like, I have to know, I have to watch this video to the end. Okay. Then of course, then you get into the content. Now this is where the point you make, the point where it's three points or it's one point, you teach the principal briefly kind of go into it. And then of course at the end then you have the last part of the framework which is the call to action. What do I do about this now that I know this and I think you've taught this before, if you, if you give people like all this information, you tell them this amazing thing and then you don't tell them to go do something, they're like, it feels weird. It's like, it's like you teach it to them and then the video just cuts off. They're like, what am I supposed to do with it? So especially if you're an entrepreneur, you want people to take action. So that's where you tell them what to do. And it's not always like, go get my free thing or go buy my course. Sometimes it's like, follow me for more tips. Sometimes it's like, you know, I just taught you how to do this, now go do it. And it just gives the content a very nice like, concluding statement. It makes it feel satisfying. And, you know, the end of the content is really important for how it makes people feel. And so when you make people feel satisfied, like, I just got a lot out of this, it's going to make them more interested in watching more of your content. And so that's the, that's the four step framework, like hook. Why? Point invitation. That's what I call it. Right. And it takes people through the process, this psychological process, grabbing their attention, getting them interested in what you're saying, giving them some value, building trust with them, and then getting them to actually take action on what you just said.
Russell Brunson
Yeah, I think what's interesting about it too is we've had a lot of videos we've done that have gone viral. You get a million views, whatever. But like usually they're based on some something or something, you know, whatever. Those people don't turn into customers later. Some of these videos didn't go as viral for us, but you know, we get 30, 40,000 views on it. But someone, it's, it brings first off, the right person, watch the person who watches? More likely to. You know, like, it's. It's like we do some of these funny ones or whatever, these different ones that do a lot of stuff, but they don't turn into money. Whereas these are the ones, like someone consumes that consistently. Those are the ones that turn into customers and fans and all the other kind of stuff. You know, I mean, yeah, we looked.
Eric Thain
At the stats on your videos. I think it was a 4x increase in shares on those videos versus your other ones. Because it's. Because it. Again, like I said, it's. This is especially good for people who are like, you entrepreneurs are trying to get a message out there. It's really good at getting that information out there to the right people. So it catches the attention of the right people. And I think a lot of people look at it and they go like, whoa, it didn't get a lot of views. But it's like, it's not always about views. I could teach this real quick. There's this thing that I teach called the content funnel.
Russell Brunson
The word funnel's in it. I'm already sold.
Eric Thain
Let's go. Yeah, you love it. So the content funnel is really understanding the three different types of content, and this is really good. So you understand, like, the flow of a single piece of content is what we just talked about. But let's talk about your overall content strategy. This is the content funnel because there are videos that are designed to go viral to get a lot of views. Those videos typically don't produce as many buyers or naturally when you get a million views on a video. I just had a video this weekend that got a million views in, like 24 hours. Like, just completely took off. It's at 2 million views now. But, like, it's not like, I just. It blew up my business overnight. It got a lot of reach, but not necessarily like a lot of buyers, because there's different parts of the funnel. So you guys know how funnel works, right? So at the top of the funnel, it's really big. Yeah, Right. And that's the reach phase of the funnel is like, you want to reach as many people as possible. Possible. The middle part of the funnel is the trust phase. This is where you're building value, building trust with people. Okay. And then the bottom of the funnel is conversion. So you're going to reach a lot of people, but the number of the percentage of those people who end up buying from you is small. It's a fraction of those people. And so when you have videos like that, you do something funny or Something silly or entertaining. Like if I made a video of me chugging a gallon of milk in 30 minutes and then throwing up, like it probably would do that right now. Where's the milk? Like, like probably would go viral, you know, because it's almost like a guarantee that something like that is going to, or at least is going to get a lot of views. But what's that doing for my business? Not much. Right.
Russell Brunson
The person who sees it like my kids sometimes will see my videos and it's like my, my kids are being shown that one, but they're not gonna be shown that, you know.
Eric Thain
Yeah, exactly.
Russell Brunson
Like who's actually watching these? Doesn't really.
Eric Thain
Yeah. So the video that I had go viral this weekend, like it wasn't super related to what I do. It was kind of. I designed it to be more of a reach style piece of content that's just designed to get a ton of views and get a bunch of people noticing you. Now the next phase is the middle of funnel content. So what I can do is I can follow up that video with another video that points to it that says like, hey, it was a video of my book getting printed. Right. And showing the manufacturing process, which is really interesting. And then, you know, so a bunch of people like, oh, that's super cool. And then moving on. But I got like, you know, maybe 6 or 700 followers from it, from the 2 million views. So the next video can be like, I just made this video and it went viral. Here's how I did it, here's why it went viral and that kind of thing. So it's taking the attention from that video and now narrowing it down into what I do. Okay. My target industry. So reach style content is designed to speak to everyone. It's, it's not like super hyper focused on what you do. It's designed to like be entertaining or valuable to everyone. That's what allows it to go viral, to get a lot of reach. But to really make it work for you, you want to take all that attention and narrow it down into your industry. So your trust style content in the middle of the funnel is, is really speaking to your industry now, speaking to what you do. So I'm talking to content creators and entrepreneurs and making that happen. And then of course your conversion content is talking about, is talking to your buyers or prospective buyers. Here's what I have, here's what I do. So that video as an example, it was a video imagine like the manufacturing line of the book going through it. This machine that prints 20,000 books a day. So it's just flying through. It's really cool. The. The hook that I put on it was how books are printed, right? Broad appeal. Anybody could be interested in that. Anybody. Like the. How it's made style video, right? Where people are just like, oh, that's cool, and they get to see the process. So that hook was really important in making that happen. Now, I could have taken the exact same video, Imagine the exact same video, and I put a hook on it that says, here's how to grow your brand with a book. Okay? Very different. Same video, different hook. That's not gonna go as viral. It's not gonna get as many views, but it's gonna speak more to my target audience. And then imagine the same video again. But it says. It says, my book is getting printed. Here's where to get one right? Promotion. That's heavy conversion style. Same video, different hooks, totally different audiences. And so as a content creator, you want to have a mix of all three types of content. You want to have the funny entertainings, sometimes not funny. Some people are just not funny, that's fine. But it can be like tips and tricks. It can be things that are just meant to just appeal to a lot of people and go viral. And then you have the stuff that's middle of funnel. More valuable, more teaching people. That builds a lot of trust with your audience. And they get to know you, and they get to understand what you do. And then you want to have conversion content, which is occasionally like, hey, go get this thing, or go buy my my product or whatever. Now, the cool thing is, if you follow the formula in this book, the framework we talked about, you can actually do all three in one video. And that's where we found the most success with these, is you start with a hook that speaks to a broad audience. You narrow their attention into value that is related to your industry. And then at the end, you give them a call to action, to go get something for free or to go buy a product. And what it does is it hooks a large. It casts a wide net. You bring a lot of people. You bring them down to the middle of the funnel, where you kind of filter out all the people that are not interested, and then you get those people that are your audience. Because you think about it, if you cast a wide net, if you get a million people, I guarantee you there are people in there that are your audience, right? No matter what the video is, there's some in there. And so you want to filter those people out into. This is what I'M teaching you now. And then you filter those even down further into now go take action on it. And that's why this framework works, why we did it for you. Maybe it doesn't go as viral as something that is only focused on the top of the funnel, but it will get you more views than what you're getting normally if you're just showing up on camera and talking about what you do, because it's in the language of social media. And it will do a better job of taking that wide net, filtering it down into the people who are actually your people in your industry and then filtering those people down into the ones that want to join your email list or get your lead magnet or join your webinar or buy a product.
Russell Brunson
Yeah, very cool. Okay, I want to talk about this from two different standpoints. The second one is like people have who are already paying for ads and transitioning. But first I want to talk about more of the beginners. A lot of people are on here. They're the beginning of their journey. They're trying to create an offer, they're trying to create a funnel. And a couple of things that I noticed is interesting is a lot of people there, they know that I'm making this thing, I'm creating this offer. And so they don't want to talk about it because they want to wait until the offer's done, then reveal it to the world, right? So spend way too long, usually six months, a year or two years, trying to build this thing. And then they're like, I want to share with the world. And they put it out there and there's no one. They have no following, they have no audience, they have nothing, right? And then, then they're like, what do I do? I'm like, well, you should have started building the audience when you first had the idea. Not two years later you can buy ads. Like, why? Can't afford ads? What should I do? And so it's, it's weird thing. And I want, I want to just reinforce this and get people's heads thinking about this. Like if you're a brand new beginner and you know you're creating something or you want to create something, like now is the time to start doing this, right? And I remember, man, this is probably, this is back in the Periscope days. This is Rewind. Seven or eight years ago, I was going live on Periscope every day and just putting these things out there. And I remember one of my Inner Circle meetings, I just launched Inner Circle and they were asking how Did I know what hooks to use, Right? How do you know what hooks to use for your webinars and for your email? How do you know these things? And I was thinking about it. I was like, well, I'm going live every single day. But not only that, I'm also recording podcasts every single day. Plus, I'm. And I was like, I'm testing a ton of hooks, right? So I was thinking about my day. I'm like, when I walk in, like, in the morning, I see my wife, and, like, I try to share something with her. You know, I'm like, oh. And I, like, I'm testing material, right? So testing on her and see if she reacts. And they come to the office, and then, like, Steve Larsen's the opposite. Steve or Dave or whoever. I, like, I tell them a story. I'm just, like, testing material. And then I record my podcast. I'm testing it, and then I go live on Periscope, and I would test it, and then, like. And so I'd be testing all these different things. I'm looking like, what's. What are people responding to? What are they not responding to? What's. The things? Then the ones were like, oh, wow, this one got reactions, this one got responses, and I would double down. I'd go deeper. And, like, by the time I'm selling something, I've weeded through, you know, I don't know, 2, 3, 4, 500 different hooks, and I know which ones are. These are the 10 that land. And then from there, I've reached. I told the story on the podcast. I told it to my friend, and I told it on an interview somewhere else. And, like, the point where, like, I know how to tell that story now, and it's going to land, and now I have something. And I think that this process, like, if you don't have anything yet, like, this should be step number one, because this is gonna help you to figure out your message, to figure out all those kind of things, and your audience will have a chance to find you, right? It's like, going through your process and, like, just starting today, and kind of like, you, like, you made the commitment. Okay, I'm gonna go every single day. You did three in Mexico, and you started doing it, and it took a couple months, but then how many months did you say it was dropping before it turned around? So two months dropped me before it turned around. And for most people who are spending, you know, a year, six months, whatever, on creating their offer in their first funnel, it's like, this is what you should be doing in the interim, like, while you're waiting. Yeah. And this is that way when you have something to sell, you now have an audience to sell it to and you figure out how to craft your message. You find out what's working. And I see people all the time who create a webinar at Bombs. And I go back and I'll do it, like, spot check it. And I'm just like, none of these, none of the hooks, none of the seats are that sexy. But they have no idea. They're just putting the first thing out there. It's like you're putting your first test out there on this thing that's a 90 minute presentation. Like, it's so much stress without stress testing versus, like, let's go and test things fast. So I'm curious with people you've worked on this, especially probably everyone who's a Mastermind paradise afterwards, like, what kind of result, like, for those who are just. They're starting from nothing, do you have stories or results or something that you can share just about that process of, like, starting before you're ready and just getting it. So that way when you have an offer, you have an audience that's ready for it.
Eric Thain
Yeah, for sure. And the principle that you're saying is spot on, 100%. Like, build in public, talk about it. Like, start talking about stuff well before it happens. I've been talking about this book for a year and a half now. Right. And then finally did the launch. And you know, and you want to do that. You want to create that process. And it's one of the biggest advantages of creating content. If you're like, I don't have an offer yet, or I don't. I don't have my webinar ready yet. So great, go. Start just documenting your journey. Talk about, here's what I'm working on. Here's what I'm thinking about doing. Here's what I'm trying to build. Like, you're at the beginning phase.
Russell Brunson
Here's what I learned today.
Eric Thain
That's why here's what I learned today. Here's the thing that Russell did. Here's what I learned from him. Right. And you can kind of pull the celebrity from other people as well and, like, use those as hooks. And so documenting your journey is the best way to get started is just talk about, like, here's what I'm learning, here's what I'm doing. And there are some people who did that actually from Mastermind in Paradise because I remember I was up on Stage, I taught this framework to 500 people. The next day, I think all 500 of them went, made a video, and then, like, when everybody got home, maybe like 10% of them kept doing it. And to my knowledge, I think there are only two people who actually did it every day for a year. Do you know who they are? Ted Hardy and James Curran. They are still. It's been. They're going on two years now. They literally have not stopped posting videos. And what is happening with them is insane. It's crazy. They've become, like, actually well known in your community or, well, James in your community. And then Teddy, he teaches freedivers, and in his community, he's absolutely blown up. And so they're the only two people that I know of that actually did it every day. And it's because they had a bet with each other. Whoever, whoever misses the day first has to make a video and address. That's what they did. And, you know, accountability works, right? So they're still going. But the cool story about that and because I worked with both of them, is that Ted did it for an entire year, every single day. Didn't miss a single year. A single day for an entire year, made these videos. And what happened after a year was like, he had an increase in his content. It kind of worked. It wasn't like blowing up or anything, but, like, he was seeing some more lead flow. He was seeing stuff happening from his videos. And he came to me, he was like, look what's happening. Like, this isn't really working out as well. And he jumped into one of my programs. I started working with him personally, and I got on and I looked at his content, and I was like, okay, let's follow the same process that I went through with my content. Let's look at the videos that did work, and let's try and do more of that. And let's look at the videos that didn't work and just do less of that. We're just gonna start there. So we started finding the trends. What were the videos that popped off that worked really well. So, you know, he was getting a few hundred views, usually. And then, like, occasionally one would get a thousand views. Like, okay, let's look at those. And we started noticing a few things about them. Like, oh, they normally do this. They normally do this. Let's try doing more of that. And immediately, like, within days, he started making videos that were more like those, and they started getting views like, imagine that you model what's already working, right? And so we went through the audience.
Russell Brunson
Tell you what to do, you know.
Eric Thain
And so then we continued coaching him, kind of talking through like making little tweaks and, and stuff to his content. Because a lot of times it's just a little tweak, like you're one degree off. Like you're, you're making the content that's great. You're 90% of the way there. But then if you just tweak the language a little bit, if you just do this a little bit, then it works even better. And so we started doing that with him and very quickly, within like a few weeks, within a few months, like, his content really started taking off. Now he's getting thousands of views on every single video. He crossed over 10,000 followers. Now Ted's like, he's literally going viral right now as we speak, getting like 10, 15,000 views on his videos. His following count is going up. He's got videos now that, following the framework, he'll get 2, 300, 500 comments on one video asking for his lead magnet and joining his email list. And so when you can do that, when you can figure that out and you get the process right and you just start, and then when you start, then you go through the process of trying to figure out and reverse engineer how do I make this better all the time? Because it's not just about making 365 videos. It's about making a video that's better every day than the one yesterday, right? And so as you can do that now, he's like blowing up. He's getting all this attention. He's driving people. Like he's become like a, like the authority in the freediving industry because of this content. And she's changing everything for him. So that, that's the process, right? It's like you have to, you got to learn the framework and everything, but you really have to commit to just doing this consistently and showing up and making the videos and then making them better and better. And if you do that well before you even have an offer to sell, then when it comes time to sell an offer, now you have an audience to sell to you, like credibility, credibility. You know how to talk about it now because you've already spent so much time talking about it and paid attention to what worked and what didn't and, and everything just goes so much better. You have this like really solid foundation you can fall back on.
Russell Brunson
I think James is an interesting case there too, because I love James first off, and hopefully he doesn't take so disrespectful, but Knowing James, I wouldn't have been like, that's the guy who's gonna crush it on social media, you know what I mean? Very introverted, like those kind of things. But consistency and like, that's how I started seeing Mike. I keep showing my feet consistently. I keep seeing him and like, who is this guy? I want to know more now every time I see him, I'm like, oh, like it's James. But it's like the consistency that, like that did it. And I think that's one of the problems. People like you said, they just don't, they don't, they're not consistent. Nathan Barry, you know, another local Boise guy, he owns ConvertKit, but it was different. But for him, he had someone back in the day who told him. He's like, if you blog a thousand words a day, every single day for a year, it'll change everything. And so he made the commitment. He did it every single day. I think he had been doing it for like two or three years before he stopped, but it was a thousand words a day. And that's what built what became ConvertKit. It's like that consistency in the publishing, which is like, you know, the foundation of everything. And I think that if people, I've been saying it for five or six years, like if people, if you want to get rid of all your financial problems, publish every day for a year and they'll be gone. Because you can't not. Your skill set has to go up, your following will go up. All those things will take care of themselves if they'll commit. At Capella University, you can learn at your own pace with our Flexpath learning format. Take one or two courses at a time and complete as many as you can in a 12 week billing session. With Flexpath, you can even finish the bachelor's degree you started in 22 months for $20,000. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu. fastest 25% of students. Cost varies by pace, transfer credits and other factors. Fees apply. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month.
Eric Thain
Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
Russell Brunson
Of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent.
Eric Thain
To 15 per month required Intro rate.
Russell Brunson
First 3 months only, then full price plan options available.
Eric Thain
Taxes and fees extra.
Russell Brunson
See full terms@mintmobile.com so how do we get everybody who's listening to this right now to commit? Do you have any tricks?
Eric Thain
Just do it. Just do it. Do it now.
Russell Brunson
Okay, so let's type in that. So the question is, how do you do it every single day? Obviously, when you worked with me and Eileen, we were doing 50 in a day. But like, what's traditionally for you or people you work with? Like, what's normally a process? They like every day doing one. Are they batching it? Like, what does it normally?
Eric Thain
Well, let me say this first. Being consistent doesn't necessarily mean every day. So like there's going to be people watching this who like have a full time job or like, how am I going to make a video every day? You might not be able to. That's fine. Because if making a video every day causes you to make crap, honestly, then like you're not doing anything. You're not doing yourself any favors. So focus on making good content. Focus on making, you know, content that's getting better over time. And if it's three times a week, that's great. If it's five times a week or whatever. If it's a YouTube video, typically it's once a week, Right. And so it depends.
Russell Brunson
But if you go once every 30 to 45 days, it's not okay.
Eric Thain
Yeah, well, unless you're Mark Rober, right, who does a video. He's the man though, once, once a month. But they're really big productions, right? So. So there's a balance of quality and quantity. And I say in my book, quality is better than quantity. But quantity leads to quality, and quality, quantity is the best. Right? So if you can create quantity of quality content, that's the end goal. But you're not gonna start there. You're gonna start out making probably a quantity of really bad content so that it becomes better. And then when it becomes good, then you'll actually start to see that happen. So first of all, so don't get like all worried that like I have to make a video every single day and this is gonna be crazy. If you can, awesome. It's a really good goal to strive for. But especially in today's social media landscape, like if your videos are good and you're doing a few times a week, like you're good on the algorithm, like, not. There's no issue there when we're talking about short form video. Right. So what's more important? I saw a video about this the other day. I thought it was really good. He said, it's not about frequency. It's about consistency. Consistency is showing up for your audience regularly. Frequency is about how many videos per day am I putting out there? And so if you're focused on frequency and not consistency, you're probably headed to burnout. Like, you see that happen to a lot of people. They make a video every day for two weeks or a month or two months, and they're like, I can't do this anymore, and they move on to something else, right? So if you can just show up consistently. And the reason why that's important is because, number one, the algorithms like it. They want to see somebody who's consistently posting, who's consistently sharing quality content, who's consistently getting a good amount of views, and then they'll start boosting you and showing your content to more people. But what's more important than the algorithm, and I saw a post from Gary Vee about this the other day, is that the algorithm is not a robot. The algorithm is people. It's literally the people watching your content. They're the ones determining whether your content goes viral or not. And so if you understand people, if you understand how to speak to people, it's not about just gaming the algorithm. It's about showing up for an audience. And how many of you guys are, like, really good friends with somebody who's only there for you, like, some of.
Russell Brunson
The time when they need something, right? When I'm trying to sell you something.
Eric Thain
You want to build an audience and a community, like, you need to show up, you got to be there for them. And that's. So there's a psychological component to that. And so I would make that the number one goal is like, I'm just going to show up consistently at whatever frequency I can handle right now. I'm going to show up consistently for my audience and then build systems around that. So I'm a big systems guy. I love systematizing this process, which is why, like, with you or with Eileen or some of our other clients, we typically do like a batch shoot day. So we'll write all the scripts and then shoot them all in one day. And then you don't have to do anything for a month or two months in your case, right? And they just drip out over time. So if you can be consistent with that, for some people, you might like to shoot, you know, a few videos once a week, and that's totally fine. Or maybe a few more videos twice a month or something like that. So you find out what's the Rhythm that works for you. And the more you can batch that content and get it going, then the more consistent you're gonna be able to be. And then you can actually go on vacation or you can do other things. Your content keeps flowing. So. So that's the way that I look at it.
Russell Brunson
That's cool. When you say, like, writing a scripting, some people might be freaking out. Like, wait, after I script, Like, I'm curious because you wrote. I mean, you literally wrote all those scripts for me, like, for someone who's like, I, like, how do they. How do they find those stories initially? How do they. Do you have a strategy for them who don't have, like, you know, two decades of content I've done that they could pull. That I can pull from. Right. Versus them. It's like, in the beginning of this, like, how do they think through that? How do they find the story? Or how do they. How do they know what to even say? You know what I mean?
Eric Thain
There's a lot of research strategies for finding ideas, but I think the biggest thing I have this thing called the authority matrix that I teach that's about, like, where do you start when you're starting out with content? And it typically starts with two types of content. One is documenting your journey. So there's a well of content ideas there. Just talking about, like, here's what I learned today. And then the second one is really, like, playing off of other people's expertise. So you take a video from Russell Brunson or Alex Hormozi or somebody like that, like, they said this, and here's what I think about it. And so you get to capitalize on the authority of other people and then just share your own thoughts on it. And it's a really good way to get started because you'll start coming up with ideas. You can do things like searching, you know, Reddit for what questions are people asking in my industry, which is another good way to do it. You can look at YouTube videos. You can model other people's content. One of the things that we do with all our clients and help other people do is go find other videos that have already gone viral and just model them, right? Not. Not copying what they're saying. You can take somebody in a completely different industry, but you model the format like the structure. Here's why it went viral. I'm going to take that. I'm going to fill in my own information and my own content, my own stories to do that. And then that way you're not reinventing the wheel Every time. Because there's so much content out there, you don't have to anymore. You can see what's working and you can do more of it. And actually, this is like a little teaser, but actually built a software product that does this for you. Yeah. And it's all powered by AI and everything, but it actually knows your voice and it knows your stories and it knows your content. And then it also knows social media because, you know, like, if you use ChatGPT, it's like the knowledge cutoff is like two years ago. And so if you have it write content for you. It's like, really cheesy and lots of hashtags and emojis and you're like this. I'll get booed off the stage if I post this. Right. So it's actually trained on how to write content correctly. That's another thing that comes along with the limited edition. Oh, cool. Anyway, so. But that's a. That's a new thing that we're launching as well with it. That will help you to do that. Because this is by far the biggest struggle that people run into is like, what do I talk about? How do I come up with content? How do I turn it into other types of content? And it, like, assists you through that whole process.
Russell Brunson
Awesome. Yeah. I've been playing more with AI recently and, like, taking all my books and videos and everything and then saying, analyze all this and then, like, give me hooks because, like, I get a spot too. Right. Even I'm doing this song. I'm just like, what am I talk about? I don't even know. Like, I'm out of ideas, you know? And it's like, well, you haven't talked about this in two years. Oh, yeah, that was. That was amazing. Because that's half the time, like, literally for me now. It's like, I've said most of the things I want to say. So it's like going back, you know, because in Instagram or whatever, it gets deeper, it disappears. Right. Or even right now, if you notice, we've been reposting a lot of ones we filmed a few years ago. It's like, they still work. Bring it back to the top. Like, you know, most people didn't remember this from a month ago or a year ago or whatever, you know, and so.
Eric Thain
Or a day ago, people like, not every video reaches your whole audience, so you can repost stuff. You can, you can. And a lot of times the. The process with content is saying the same thing over and over again from a different angle. And it's just always coming up with new hooks and new ways of making the same point. You're. You're constantly making the same point. Your business needs a funnel. That's it. That's literally the only point. That's all I got. It's just from a different angle every single time.
Russell Brunson
I have a friend right now who's doing. He's killing Instagram, but He has basically 10 accounts. And then he'll do a podcast interview like this, and he'll take. But he has multiple camera angles. So he has. He makes. Each one's a different camera angle, even though it's the same interview. And he posted across 10 accounts. He's like, I average 500. 500 views per post per account. So he's like, that's 50,000 views. And then he'll do it three times a day across. You know, he's got like. It'd be like the Russell Brunson clips, the Russell Brunson podcast. And so just. Anyway, there's a lot of different strategies when you start if you really want to geek out and go deep. You guys, there's a lot of cool things, but the focus initially is learning how to actually start doing it. Okay, the last thing, and we're almost to the end of this. And we'll do a hardcore pitch for this because people need to buy this book. But the last one is like, okay, and this comes back to you. Like, you were spending 40, $50,000 a month in ads, you were successful, and then you cut it off in transition. So I want to speak to the people who are running paid ads. I don't necessarily think they should shut it off, but at the same time, it's like, how do you. Knowing that the paid ad game gets harder every single day? Like, it just keeps doing that.
Eric Thain
Right?
Russell Brunson
And we know that like four years ago in Traffic Secrets I wrote, the title was like. Or the title page. Like, there's a storm coming. This is shifting. Like, like, how do people start augmenting? Where it's like, don't just do paid ads, but having this. Because you have no idea when the paid ads are gonna stop working. Like, even for selling online event, the ad costs from last month to this month went up 5%. It's like, you do that for a year, you know it. Eventually the profits get. Gets get squeaked out. Right. So it's like, how do we start doing these things hand in hand so that if and when the ads stop, that our business doesn't stop?
Eric Thain
Yeah. And to be clear, I don't advocate for shutting off your ads either. It. It made sense for me at that time. It was the right move at the right time. And.
Russell Brunson
And there's a spot when you're bleeding money that you have to.
Eric Thain
You have to do something. Yeah, but we're even starting to, like, kind of supplement with ads now. And, like, this year, that's a big play for us. It's a totally different ballgame when you have a foundation of an audience like you do, Right? Like, those ads work so much better because everybody knows who you are because they've seen your content, because they have trust with you, and so you don't have to worry as much. But here's the thing. If you're running ads, what I always say is, what is an ad except content that you put money behind? And the best ads are the best content, right? It's gotta be something that's, again, grabs people's attention, is interesting, makes them interested in what you're doing, and has a call to action. And so it makes sense that if you're gonna be spending money on ads, you might as well be creating content as well, because what you're doing is you're testing ads with your audience, testing the hooks. And this is one of the huge advantages of content, is because most people, especially if you're a beginner with ads, most people think like, oh, I'm gonna go spend a bunch of money on ads. But the reality is they're gonna spend a bunch of money just testing to see what works. Actually just testing to see what doesn't work. Right. You'll spend thousands of dollars just testing and find out that none of that worked. Or here's the one thing that worked. So instead of doing that with ads, you can just do it with content. If you're consistently creating content all the time, what happens is you find those videos that are the outliers, right, that we talked about, that take off, or they go viral, or they get 1,000 views instead of 100 views, and you're like, okay, that hook worked. That was interesting. Take that video, run it as an ad. Now you're testing for free, and then only spending money on the ones that have proven to work. And the type of ads that I think work the best are the ones that work as content, right? Because they're entertaining, they're interesting. It's not just like, go buy my thing, right? And so when you test that way, you find what works, and then you go spend. It works better. So you're spending less on it because it's more effective than you going out and testing to see what works. And then the other thing that happens is when you're creating content, you're building an audience, you're building up a warm audience. I think one of the reasons why your content works so well and why your ads work so well, you have such a huge audience now, right? And all those people that trust you. And so you can put something out to your email list or to content or whatever and you get a ton of free traffic along with the paid traffic to the cold audience. Right. And so we did this with Eileen. We took one of her best performing videos that took off. We started running as an ad. That ad ran for actually might still be running. I haven't checked. Last time I checked, it had been running for like a year and a half profitably, right. Which most ads last like a couple days, a couple weeks, right. So because it was a piece of content that worked and then we took it and ran it as an ad and then it just continued to work.
Russell Brunson
Here's something funny. I don't know if you knew this, you probably didn't notice, but for everyone else at home, this is kind of cool. So I did my film day. We did the 50 or whatever and then Eileen did hers. And she told me the second time she's like, I just, I did the, the 60 to 90 second video. But she's like, I started just recording an end cap, like a cta like for hard end things. She's like, that way, if it worked, we have that same video with now me pitching something and then that run the ad. And so my next time I started doing the same things like I did the, the free version that's, that's, you know, content based. And then I just recorded a hook. Like, if you want more, go to free copy of the dot com secrets book at dot com secrets.com and then it would just, if that one worked, then we attached it and then that became the ad. And so it's just kind of a cool thing. It takes you an extra three seconds every time you film something to do an end bumper as an ad. And then when those con, you know, whichever versions hit, hit on the freeze organic, then you can transition to using.
Eric Thain
Yeah, because when we did those videos for her, they already had a call to action like, and usually it's comment below this word like a keyword and I'll send you my free thing or send you my webinar or whatever. And so then we would just record another version of it. That's like, click on the link down below, right? And then if we did run it as an ad, they had that version of it that they could run. It made sense.
Russell Brunson
So cool. It just gives you the ability to create 30 ads a month, which is.
Eric Thain
Which is great. So test them and then run the ones that.
Russell Brunson
Yeah, I love it, man. Well, this is cool. I love that. I love what you're doing. I think there's not enough people talking about this. And I think your. Your framework and your format is actually doable for most people versus other ones, which are like, here's how to go viral and get 5 million views tomorrow. It's like, that's going to be hard for most people. Most people in our world are trying. They're creating something, right? They have an end goal and offer they want to create. Then they're building the funnel. And this is like the front of the funnel that brings all the people in consistently, plus helps them to find the voice, build an audience. Like, there's so many valuable things. It should be the first step someone's doing when they're. When launched online business. So now's your time, man. Tell us why we should buy the book, where to buy the book, all this stuff, and then everyone go buy the book. So that's the game plan.
Eric Thain
Well, let me just say this. At the end of the day, the whole purpose of all of this is to take your message, whether it's a business message or a charity or something that you just love talking about, and just to get it out to people, right? Get it in front of more people. And it used to be that you do that in newspapers or TV or yellow pages, but now you now, the place where the attention is, is on social media, it's online. That's just how it works. And so the whole point of this book is, yes, to give you the tips and the tricks and the tactics for creating content. I go through the whole framework and how to be confident on camera and how to go viral and all that kind of stuff. But then it also goes deeper than that because there's an element of this that's becoming a creator and really seeing yourself as the type of person who can do this. And this book will prove to you that you have a message and you can do it and you can put it out there and it'll give you the confidence and the tools and the resources that you need to start doing that consistently, to start showing up regularly to share your content, to share it the right way that makes it optimized for social media. To make it work. And then it even goes as far as like how to monetize that and how to turn it into a business and sell products and build your team and all that kind of stuff around it. So it runs the entire gamut, runs the whole thing. For anybody who is an entrepreneur or creator who wants to get a message out there, who wants to make money from their message, he wants to share something online, build a following, monetize that message. That's what the book is all about. So you can go get a copy of it. It's a createdoncapture.com like we talked about earlier. There are a few copies of this limited edition version left. That's really special. Do you want it?
Russell Brunson
Yeah, I need to sign it.
Eric Thain
Yeah, exactly. I'll sign one for you. So there's a few of those left. If you go to the page and it doesn't say limited edition, then they're gone. Sorry. But if you do go to the page, there are a few of those left and that comes with a whole bundle of things that it's really awesome. But otherwise you'll be able to get it either way by going to Create don't. Capture. Com.
Russell Brunson
What's the link again? One more time.
Eric Thain
Createdontcapture.com and I can't wait for you guys to read it.
Russell Brunson
Awesome. Thank you, Eric. Appreciate you coming out. Grateful for what you're creating for our people. It's awesome, man. And everyone go to create don't capture dot com, get your book and I will see you guys on the next episode.
Eric Thain
Thanks, man. Thanks man. Appreciate it.
Russell Brunson
Hey, this is Russell and I had a really cool offer for you right now. Shortly after we launched clickfunnels, I remember asking some of our top two comic club award winners, what would they do if they had everything taken away from it? They lost their name, their brand, their email list, their traffic, everything. All they had was a clickfunnels account and Internet connection for 30 days. What would they do over the next 30 days to get back on top? I asked over 102 comma club winners and from that 30 people wrote me back and gave me very detailed step by step battle plans. Day number one, they would do this. Day number two, they would do this. And by the time the 30 days was done, they'd be back on top of the very successful business. Do you want to know what these people wrote? If so, I took all these 30 battle plans and put them inside of one book that you can get free at 30days.com. All you gotta do is go to 30days.com and go get a free copy of this book. We'll ship it out to you. Just cover the shipping handling. And when you get it in the mailbox, you have a chance to go through and look at all of these detailed step by step blueprints. All you gotta do is find one of these blueprints that you like, follow it step by step, and when you're done, you will have your own online business done and launched and live. So go get a free copy of one of my favorite books we've ever created at 30days.com. Again, that's 30days.com.
Podcast Summary: The Russell Brunson Show - Episode 26
Title: Eric Thayne’s 60-Second Perfect Webinar: The Secret To Killer Organic Content
Host: Russell Brunson | YAP Media
Release Date: April 14, 2025
In Episode 26 of The Russell Brunson Show, host Russell Brunson welcomes Eric Thain, a seasoned participant in their coaching programs and the author of the newly launched book, "Create Don't Capture." The episode delves into Eric's transformative journey from relying heavily on Facebook ads to mastering organic content creation, and introduces his innovative framework—the 60-Second Perfect Webinar—designed to enhance organic reach and engagement.
Timestamp: [02:04]
Eric begins by sharing his initial success in the online space, where his business thrived on Facebook ads, generating substantial revenue by promoting filmmaking courses focused on lighting and cinematography. However, as Facebook's advertising landscape evolved—becoming more expensive and less effective—Eric faced significant challenges, culminating in severe financial strain.
Russell Brunson remarks on the dramatic shift Eric experienced:
“We went from millions in revenue to like $100,000 in debt, like, what felt like overnight.”
[06:11]
The catalyst for change came during a Mastermind event in Paradise, Mexico. Faced with escalating ad costs and diminishing returns, Eric made the bold decision to shut off Facebook ads and pivot entirely to organic content creation through short-form videos on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
Timestamp: [10:10]
Eric elaborates on the development of his 60-Second Perfect Webinar, a concise adaptation of the traditional Perfect Webinar framework tailored for organic social media content. This framework consists of four key components:
“The hook, super important.”
—Eric Thain [17:29]
By meticulously crafting each segment, Eric ensures that the content not only engages viewers but also builds trust and encourages actionable responses.
Timestamp: [25:06]
Eric introduces the Content Funnel, a strategic approach to content creation that aligns with the different stages of audience engagement:
“It's designed to grab people's attention, get them to pay attention to what you're talking about, narrow their focus in on what you do and what you can help them with...”
—Eric Thain [16:03]
This funnel ensures a seamless transition from attracting viewers to fostering trust and ultimately driving conversions, making the content strategy both comprehensive and effective.
Timestamp: [43:08]
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the importance of consistency in content creation over sheer frequency. Eric emphasizes that while daily content production is ideal, it's more crucial to maintain a regular posting schedule that one can sustain without compromising quality.
“Focus on making good content. Focus on making, you know, content that's getting better over time.”
—Eric Thain [43:37]
He differentiates between consistency (regularly showing up for the audience) and frequency (number of posts per day), advising creators to find a balance that maintains audience engagement without leading to burnout.
Timestamp: [38:49]
Eric shares inspiring success stories of individuals like Ted Hardy and James Curran, who adhered to his content creation principles. Through consistent effort and strategic content planning, both individuals experienced substantial growth in their online presence and business metrics.
“Ted was getting a few hundred views, ... now he's getting like 10, 15,000 views on his videos.”
—Eric Thain [38:51]
These anecdotes underscore the effectiveness of the 60-Second Perfect Webinar framework and the broader Content Funnel strategy in transforming online engagement and driving business success.
Timestamp: [32:14]
Russell and Eric discuss the common pitfalls faced by newcomers and established marketers alike. Beginners often delay sharing their offers until they're fully polished, resulting in a lack of audience when they finally launch. Eric advises:
“Start just documenting your journey. Talk about, like, here's what I'm working on. Here's what I'm thinking about doing... you're at the beginning phase.”
—Eric Thain [35:49]
For those transitioning from paid ads, Eric recommends integrating content creation with existing advertising strategies. By using successful organic content as ads, marketers can reduce ad spend while increasing effectiveness.
“Running ads becomes much more effective when you have a foundation of an audience... most of what your ad contains is based on content that you already created.”
—Eric Thain
Timestamp: [56:51]
Towards the end of the episode, Eric passionately advocates for his book, "Create Don't Capture," highlighting its comprehensive coverage of content creation strategies, from ideation to monetization.
“The whole point of this book is... it will give you the confidence and the tools and the resources that you need to start doing that consistently.”
—Eric Thain [58:22]
Russell reinforces the value of Eric’s framework and encourages listeners to purchase the book to enhance their content strategy and business growth.
“Everyone go to createdontcapture.com, get your book and I will see you guys on the next episode.”
—Russell Brunson [58:56]
Purchase the Book:
To learn more about crafting effective organic content and implementing the 60-Second Perfect Webinar framework, visit createdontcapture.com and secure your copy of Eric Thain’s limited edition book today.
Notable Quotes:
Final Thoughts Episode 26 of The Russell Brunson Show offers invaluable insights into shifting from paid advertising to organic content strategies. Eric Thain's "Create Don't Capture" presents a pragmatic and psychologically informed framework that empowers creators and entrepreneurs to build meaningful, trust-based relationships with their audiences. By emphasizing consistency, strategic content planning, and continuous improvement, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to enhance their online presence and business success through organic content.