The Russell Brunson Show

Episode Title: Two Marketing Tricks From Some Old School Marketers
Host: Russell Brunson
Date: August 8, 2017

Episode Overview

In this episode, Russell Brunson, speaking from a rainy beach in Kauai during his 15th wedding anniversary trip, dives into two classic marketing strategies he’s recently re-discovered from veteran marketers Bill Glazer and TJ Rowletter. Russell unpacks how the “old school” methods of structured promotional calendars and relentless, consistent customer acquisition via direct mail can be adapted to any business — especially in today’s digital landscape. He shares practical applications for entrepreneurs striving to build a mass movement, and outlines how he’s revamping his own marketing operations with these principles.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Structured Annual Promotional Calendar

• Source: Bill Glazer (of Glazer-Kennedy)
• Concept: Plan annual promotions around the biggest events and offers, prioritizing them by importance.
• Execution:
  • Map out the whole year’s promotions in advance, ensuring your key events and launches get the most focus.
  • All other promotions and offers are scheduled around these anchor events.
  • Builds urgency and scarcity into your offers to drive sales.
• Russell’s Insight:
  • He admits to being less disciplined in his planning, often going “week by week, month by month.”
  • Inspired to start calendaring promotions where core offers (like certification programs and memberships) are only open twice a year, creating real urgency and scarcity.
• Quote:
  • "Most of our programs are open all the time, which is good, but the urgency and scarcity is not there. So I was like, I think what I'm going to do is start calendaring it out..." ([07:00])

2. Relentless Consistency in Customer Acquisition

• Source: TJ Rowletter, direct mail legend
• Concept:
  • Consistently send out huge, predictable volumes of acquisition offers—e.g., 50,000 direct mail letters every week to acquire new customers.
  • Focus all this effort on a single, super-hot front-end offer.
• Business Example:
  • TJ would spend up to $500 to sell a $50 course, confident that monetization would come from follow-up backend funnels.
• Russell’s Application:
  • Asks listeners to identify their “one acquisition funnel” and ruthlessly drive consistent volume to it every week.
  • Encourages building a team and setting KPIs around this driver (e.g., “1,000 books a week”).
• Quote:
  • “We need to be spending as much as we can to get people into that thing consistently every single week.” ([10:30])
  • "50,000 letters a week rule" — be relentlessly focused on bringing new blood into your business. ([14:56])

3. Backend Monetization & Ascension Funnels

• TJ’s Model:
  • Once a customer responds to the initial offer, they are placed into elaborate follow-up sequences.
  • Each response triggers further letters, offers, upsells (sometimes up to 15-20 letters), leading to high-ticket back-end products ($2k–$5k).
• Russell’s Adaptation:
  • Plans to create a strategic, multi-step follow-up funnel (“ascension funnel”) for his own offers—beginning with Expert Secrets, podcast content, then moving through to higher-end programs.
  • Suggests using closed/open windows for core offers throughout the year for maximum impact.

4. The Power of Urgency & Scarcity

• Supporting Stories:
  • Russell references launches by Stu McLaren (Tribe) and Michael Hyatt, who found that opening and closing membership sites just twice a year maximized sales during “urgency” periods.
• Russell’s Plan:
  • Adopt the twice-a-year approach for core offers to inject consistent urgency into the customer journey.

Most Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On planning promotions and urgency (Russell):
  • “What Bill does... is maps [promotions] out and then they do everything. I started thinking about this... right now, most of our programs are open all the time, which is good, but the urgency and scarcity is not there.” ([06:53])
• On relentless customer acquisition (Russell on TJ):
  • “They know 50,000 letters go out every single week. All for new customer acquisition. That’s it. New customer acquisition, 50,000 letters every single week. And that’s just... the schedule.” ([09:15])
• On focus and consistency:
  • “We need to be spending as much as we can to get people into that thing consistently every single week.” ([10:30])
• On backend sequences (Russell):
  • “If they respond to one of those, then they go into a whole other sequence. They might get 10, 15, 20 letters to sell like a two, three, or $5,000 course on the back end.” ([13:30])
• On “50,000 letters a week rule”:
  • “Focusing on consistently bringing new blood into your business. I remember Garrett White, last Funnel Hacking Live, talked about people that can make it rain. The rain makers are the ones who dominate...So you gotta be focusing on making it rain…” ([14:56])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–02:00: Russell sets the scene in Hawaii, shares anniversary stories, intro to the episode's theme.
• 02:00–06:30: Discussion of TJ Rowletter, the “opportunity market,” and how every product should present a new opportunity.
• 06:30–09:00: Lessons from Bill Glazer—mapping an annual promotional calendar, anchoring offers to big events, and the importance of urgency and scarcity via open/close launches.
• 09:00–13:30: Breakdown of TJ Rowletter’s mail strategy—50,000 letters a week, focusing all spend on a single offer, back-end sequences and high-ticket upsells.
• 13:30–16:00: Russell’s plans to integrate these approaches: a major follow-up “ascension” funnel, opening/closing core offers twice a year, and setting acquisition volume KPIs.
• 16:00–17:04: Russell’s recap and call to action—focus on consistent acquisition and strategic monetization, and encouragement to model these strategies.

Structure of Russell’s Playbook

(As Outlined in This Episode)

• 1. Consistent Acquisition (“50,000 letters a week rule”):
  • Identify one killer front-end offer
  • Set aggressive, regular acquisition targets (leads, sales, etc.)
• 2. Ascension Funnel:
  • Build a sequenced, logical path through your offers to maximize customer lifetime value.
• 3. Monetization via Scarcity:
  • Open/close core offers 1–2 times per year to inject urgency into the buying cycle.
• 4. Repeat/Refine:
  • Measure, optimize, and stay ruthlessly consistent throughout the year.

Tone & Style

Russell is conversational, candid, and enthusiastic, mixing personal anecdotes (honeymoon, trying to get his wife on the podcast) with actionable business advice and encouragement to model the best. The advice is practical and drawn from decades of real-world, “no-venture-capital-needed” entrepreneur experience.

Takeaway for Listeners

Whether you’re new or seasoned in marketing, this episode provides concrete classic frameworks you can use for your own business:

• Anchor your year around a few, massively promoted events.
• Treat acquisition as a relentless, metric-driven process—pick your offer and pour in consistent energy and spend.
• Leverage urgency and scarcity for all core offers by only letting people in at set times.
• Map your backend ascension funnel, so every customer knows the ideal next step.
• Start planning now—don’t leave your promotional calendar to chance.

Action Step:
Russell encourages listeners to “funnel hack” these ideas and watch how he implements them in real-time—inviting you to model, not just admire, these proven marketing secrets.

For more detail, visit MarketingSecrets.com for transcripts and video versions of the podcast.