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Hey, what's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Seekers podcast. Today I'm gonna take you down a trip down memory lane. So the big question is, how are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, were spending money from our own pockets? How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Secrets. Alright, so now that the Traffic Secrets book is done and everything's done, I swear I would never write a book again. The first thing my brain wants to do is write the next book. So here we go. Some of you guys have heard me talk about the fact that I bought the domain bootstrap.com and my goal is to tell the story about how click Funnels got bootstrapped. So instead of being like a how to book, like all of the Secrets trilogy has been, this is going to be like the story of what we did and how we did and kind of. Anyway, so I'm really excited for it. So I thought to start this project, you know, obviously when I rewrote the expert Secrets book, I geeked out on the Heroes two Journeys and what it all looks like and mapping it out. And I totally want to, like, I want to sit down and sync. I want to like, take the Hero's two Journeys and like, take the Clickfunnel storyline and see if we can sync it with all the different. The different parts. Right. See how close we can match the actual Heroes 2 journeys. So that's going to be a fun part of the process, but I'm not ready for that yet. So the first thing was like, I need to start building out a timeline to kind of see how this whole thing started and where we went and everything. And so I started a new Trello board and I basically started. If anybody's used Trello before, there's different columns, right? So I had a column for each year and then Melanie's work with me to go through and inside of each column is to, like make a card for all the major milestones. Like, oh, we did funnel hiking live. Oh, we wrote a book. Oh, we went to this event. Oh, we did that. Oh, we hit this. You know, so we have like a timeline of all the things that happen year by year. And so we started in. We started 2014. That's when we launched ClickFunnels I'm like, well, it started before that though, because in 2013 we started building ClickFunnels. But if you go back to 2011, we met Tottenham, kept going back, and so now we got the timeline all the way back to basically 2009. And so anyway, it's gonna take me and Melanie probably the next couple months to get this whole thing built out, but it's kind of crazy. So I started this whole. Basically, the first year I'm starting this is 2009. In 2009 is when I met Dylan, who's one of the original co founders of ClickFunnels. And the long story is that early that year I got a random call from someone on Tony Robbins team who said he wanted to meet me. So then two weeks later, I was in Toronto at upw, which I need to add this to the card. Upw. I met Tony and then I left. I didn't hear from him again. And then August 11th, the day after my. I think it was August 10th, we heard about it. August 10th or 11th, I was speaking at Stompernet and I got a call from Tony's assistant asking if I wanted to speak in Fiji. Okay. And then you fast forward to like two weeks later, August 29th, I'm in Fiji with Tony Robbins. While I'm in Fiji, I'm sitting there and I see this guy who's like the best designer I've ever seen. And I ask a bunch of people, like, who is this guy? His name is Dylan Jones. Emailed Dylan Jones. And while I was sitting in Namali in Fiji, I got an email back from Dylan saying, hey, what's up? What can you do for me? So he did a couple projects, and in October that month, he designed the user interface for a site called Click.com.com, which was the original Click Funnels. It never came to light, but we designed every single page. It's crazy. Look at the designs now. It's like, this is like so similar to what Click Funnels ended up becoming just in 2009. So this is five years before we actually launched Click Funnels, which is crazy. So that's how I met Dylan. And then that was 2009. 2010 is when I had my big company crash and I left like 90 people overnight and everything fell apart. And I was like, this is the worst thing in the world. This is horrible. And then on the backside of the crash, 2011 is when I, you know, down to my last dollar, I was like, I need to figure out a way to, you know how to shift our company. And I saw that on Flippa.com there someone was selling championsound.com which was an email text message autoresponder for bands. And I'm like, this is the future, I'm going to buy this thing. So I bought Champion Sound with money we didn't have. And then, and then we found out it was coded in Ruby on Rails and we didn't have Ruby on Rails programmers or servers or anything. And I tried to hire a few. It didn't work. And so after we lost all that money, I was about to delete the site. In fact, I think I emailed. I have to go back to my emails and see if I think I emailed like someone on my team, like let's just turn this off, it's not going to work. And then I had this impression of like go email your list to see if there's anybody on your list who knows Ruby on Rails. So I email my list, get a response back from Enter Todd Dickerson. Todd Dickerson emailed back and we started working together and for the entire year of 2011 and 2012 we worked on projects together. Todd didn't get paid until I don't even know when he didn't get paid for like first year and second year started paying him a little bit. And in 2013 is when we started building click funnels. I'm excited to go back in the timeline and find like all of the actual like when he was, when he flew into Boise, the email he sent me like all this stuff and like us brainstorming. I'm gonna find all those assets and plug them in here. 2013 was the year of us building click funnels. Us. I say us. I have no skills. It's the year Todd building clickfunnels and me being excited by it. And then 2014 we did the initial beta launch while in the summer while I was at my family vacation in Bear Lake. And then we came back in October 25th is when I spoke Mike Philslames event and did the very first ever funnel hacks. And then November 7th was the first day I did webinars. I did three webinars on November 7th and then it was off to the races. And so anyway it was kind of fun like finding these landmarks and putting them into this timeline of all the events that happened. And so what we're gonna do is try to go back through email calendars, memory and as much as we can, try to build out as big of like a timeline as possible of all the different events. And then my plan is I'm gonna fly each of the people that were involved. So, like, Dylan and Todd and Brent and Dave and Rya, who's been involved in this in clickfunnels from beginning, flying out here, and then interview them about each step in the, like, in the thing, like, how are you feeling when this happened and this happened and like, and just getting them all to tell their stories from their point of view, because everyone's got such different unique point of views and the direction they came into this. So we're trying to build a timeline out first so I can go intelligently interview people and spend five or six hours and go through each thing like, now, what was happening at this point in life? What were you thinking? How are you feeling? What was happening at your home? What was happening your life? And just getting really, really deep. So that way, when it's done, I will have interviews with like 30 or 40 people who are big part of initial ClickFunnels story. And then we'll have all the video, the audios, we'll have the timeline, we'll have all the assets in the time, like all the emails, all the pictures, all the videos, all the different assets we've created throughout this whole time. And then from there, I'll take all that and we'll start writing the Bootstrap book. Ah, so exciting. And hopefully at that point, I'll be able to look at the timeline of events and see, like, does this match the heroes, two journeys, like, how can we make it match and fit into this thing? I don't want to write just a story to tell a story. I want to make sure that it's a story that fits. And I think, you know, it's been fun as I've. I don't think we have an ending yet to the story. That's the hard part is I don't have an ending to the story. It's just like. And then we were here, you know, part bootstrap, part two coming soon. So we don't have an ending to the. To the story yet, but it's just kind of fun to, like, put all pieces together and the ups and the downs, the highs and the lows, the stress and the excitement and the anxiety and the stress and the happiness and the victories and, like, just. It's gonna be so much fun to kind of try to tell the story in a way that will help people understand the ClickFunnels story and how it came to be and hope in the process you'll learn A lot because you'll learn about, like, what we tried, what worked, what didn't work. But again, it's not gonna be a how to book. It's gonna be more of telling the story and the journey and all that kind of stuff. So all the how to stuff's in the secrets books. You got enough. You got enough secrets over there. You're good. Now you just gotta hear the story. The behind the scenes, the stuff that they don't tell you, they won't tell you on tv, right? Anyway, so that's I'm working on right now. And anyway, I hope that you guys have all the project. You know, I think one of our. One of our missions here in this world for all of us is to, like, go and learn a bunch of things, right? And spend time and trial and error and learning something, and then to take what you learned and like, compile it in a way that you can, like, pass it on to people after you, right? So your kids or your students or your whatever, your posterity. You know, I think all of us come to Earth and our goal is to try to make the earth a better place when we leave. And so how do you do that? Well, it's like you come on Earth and you assimilate all these things and you. You package it in a way that can, like, live beyond yourself. And that's why we do business, right? That's why we write books, that's why we create courses, that's why we teach podcasts or make videos. It's like, with the hope that the stuff we've created and the stuff we discover can live on beyond ourselves. And so for me, this is a really fun thing to be able to take this time and try to retell the story, I think. And how cool would it be to, you know, a lot of. I guess a lot of founders have told their story, how cool it would be to. For more companies to hear the actual. All the pieces and the timelines and the people and how it all worked and how it worked together. So anyway, I'm excited for it. This book is coming to you the year 2030. So I got a decade to write it. So don't be like, where else? When's the book coming out? Like, this is not gonna be a short project. In fact, I'm not gonna even pitch it to a publisher till it's done, because with the Traffic Secrets book, a publisher. I don't know if I told you this Hay House, I pitched at Hay House, and they loved it. And so we signed A contract. And I'm not a contract guy. I started reading and look at it, and then, like, the next week in the mail, we got a check. And. And I was like, what's this? Like, this is your royalty check. I'm like, I get a royalty check? Like, what? This is, like, what real authors get. This is crazy. And I'm like, what do I do with it? And he's like, well, most people take the year off and they write a book. And I was like, oh, well, huh, that sounds nice. Like, I can't imagine that, but that would be amazing. And so I took the check and cashed it and felt good about myself. And then the next day, I get an email with, like, the timeline. Like, the book has to be done by this date. We have to publish on the all this stuff. Like, and because they had paid me, like, I felt so obligated, and I had this increased level of stress and anxiety of, like, you have to have it done by this date because we gave you money. I was like, I just. I want to give the money back. Like, here you go. I don't want your money. Like, your money stressing me out. Like, just let me write my book in peace. So this one's gonna be definitely different. There's no timelines attached. There's no money attached. There's nothing till it's done. And then we'll go shop it out. A couple things I want to do. Just think this be cool. So with all these different landmarks and timelines, we're trying to put all the images and videos and, like, the stuff that we've captured all these, you know, along the way, we've captured so many amazing things so that. How cool to be inside this book is, like, when you can see a picture of it. Let's say. Let's say there's a video. Like, if there's a QR code, you hold your phone over it and boom, pops up and you, like, watch the video of the thing I'm telling you about, right? The experience. Like, any of the times we'd capture ricotta and those things, like, plugging them in, God be so cool. So anyway, that's kind of the game plan. Who knows? We'll see what happens. But anyway, I'm pumped. I'm excited. Hopefully you guys are excited about some project right now of something you're creating that'll tell your story beyond your time here on this earth. So that's how you build a legacy, right? That's how you take all these life experiences and leave them for the next generation, for the next set of people. So this, I mean, literally, it was 11 years ago that I met Dylan. So this has all happened last decade, last 10 years. It was five or six years ahead of time of trying a bunch of stuff, ups and downs, and meeting Dylan on the very end of the up of 2009. And then boom, 2010 was a crash. And then it's been literally a decade from the crash till now. And anyway, now we're in this other crash. 2010 crash was the Russell crash where my business crashed. Now we're the Corona crash, which is a little bit different. But anyway, all right, that's all I got. I'm gonna go back to work. Appreciate you guys all. Thank you so much for everything and hope you guys are having an amazing day. If you got any value from this, please take a picture of it, post it on Facebook or Instagram, and tag me on. I'd love to hear from you. And with that said, I'll talk to you all soon. Bye, everybody. Hey, everybody, this is Russell again, and really quick, I wanted to invite you to join arguably the best thing that we've ever put out inside the ClickFunnels community. And it is a challenge we call the One Funnel Away challenge. You know, everyone in their business, in their life, they're one funnel away from something. Some of you guys are one funnel away from quitting your job. Some of you guys are one funnel away from getting more impact. Some of you guys are funnel away from growing your company to the next level. And so we created this challenge to help you to create and launch your first or your next funnel. No matter where you are in your business, this challenge is going to help you. Help you understand the strategy, help you understand the tactics, help you understand all the things you need to be successful with your funnel. So what I recommend you do right now is stop everything, pause this audio, go online, and go to 1funnelway.com, that's 1funnel away.com, and join the next challenge. There's a challenge starting in the next few days, so go get started right now. One Funnel away. Com.