If you're a fan of my blog, then you've heard of Russell Brunson quite a few times, reading my reviews and the stories of all the entrepreneurs who have become members of the 2 Comma Club.
Russell has been one of the trailblazers of the last 10 years when it comes to online marketing, and not only has he made a fortune himself, but he has helped heaps of other 'gurus' make their millions, from Dan Henry to Jason Wardrop, to Peng Joon.
When it comes to most of the members of the 2 Comma Club, most owe their hard earned cash to Russell and what is without a doubt his greatest achievement: Clickfunnels.
For those of you living under a rock, Russell created ClickFunnels in 2014 along with Todd Dickerson, as an attempt to simplify earlier examples of conversion funnels.
ClickFunnels is designed to save you time and energy — to do what otherwise requires a lot of technical experience and/or a range of third-party applications. ClickFunnels succeeds in this respect.
One of the best things about ClickFunnels is that it concentrates on making money for the consumer.
They make it really easy to create your account, set up your content, and continue producing payments to your account.
Things were not always so good for Russell, and before creating ClickFunnels he, like everyone else, went through a lot of trial and error trying to get entrepreneurship right.
Here's an overview on Russell Brunson, from his early days to 2020, focusing on his business side, his private life, his charity work, and what he has done so far this year.
Throughout the pandemic, online businesses have continued to flourish, and Russell has been carrying on his public speaking gigs, even though he had to settle to thousands of Zoom viewers rather than packed halls.
But before I start this in-depth coverage of Russell Brunson in 2020, just a little bit about me..
Until 2014, like many of the people I review, I was working in a corporate job from 9 to 5.
Not only was it soul-crushing, but it didn't give me any time to pursue my bigger goals.
That was until I discovered a method to rank sites organically, generating free leads for my clients.
That website you see above, for the tree care company, I created that site in 2015, and since then I haven't had to touch or update it:
It has gained me a passive income of $2000 a month.
That's more than $100,000 for one site, in 5 years.
That's the magic of the Lead Generation business, it's by far the best model to generate passive income. If you want to know more, just hop over here!
But enough about me: time for an in-depth review Russell Brunson's life, from the early beginnings to 2020!
Russell Brunson
The Early Years
Russell was intrigued by advertising and sales from a very young age, and since he was 12 he started collecting all the junk-mail his family would receive, trying to learn more from the sales pitches on it.
He would watch TV waiting for the commercials, because to Russell, marketing and sales were the real entertainment he was waiting for.
Since he can remember, he joined any business opportunity that was thrown at him, just so he could study the art of direct response better.
In high school Russell was a state champion wrestler, and then,during his senior year, he became an All-American winning 2nd place in the country at nationals.
His first attempt at entrepreneurship happened in 2003, selling ZipBrander software. ZipBrander was a viral marketing tool that brought driven targeted traffic to the chosen websites.
The real breakthrough, though, happened when building potato guns.
Yup, that's right.
Russell realized that there were 18000 searches on Google on how to build a potato gun from scratch.
Had his moment arrived?
In 2005, "How To Create A Potato Gun" DVDs were created and Russell tried his hand at entrepreneurship again.
This was a basic training course, where customers had the option of purchasing their potato gun kit (which included all the supplies they needed) as an upsell.
Despite selling some of the DVDs, the project was eventually buried, but Russell went on to work in the internet marketing world, where his skills made him one of the most sought after marketing geniuses.
Only one year after graduating from college, Russell had put aside his dreams of becoming a wrestling star and potato gun-lord, and he had made his first million within the world of marketing.
The ClickFunnels Breakthrough
Russell's early marketing period is filled with successes of every kind.
During this period he sold everything he put his hands on:
Shakes and supplements, coaching and books, personal consulting, tech services and software, going from strength through strength, and earning a reputation as one of the most savvy marketers in the business.
He consistently flew through the ranks of every company he worked for, and one time managed to generate 1.5 million leads in just 6 weeks:
The stuff of legends.
Here is a young Russell while winning a Ferrari due to his outstanding work while working with Pure Leverage, back in 2013.
All the problems Brunson had encountered in his early life as a marketer brought him to pair up with programming wiz-kid Todd Dickerson, to try an produce a software that could help throughout the process of client acquisition.
The idea Russell had was a software, which would make it easy to create sales funnels that actually worked for every different market and that could be easily customizable.
In October 2014, Russell and Todd Launched ClickFunnels, with a slick interface designed by Dylen Jones:
But where would he get the beta testers for a product that was probably way ahead of its times?
Russell had by then put together a 1 million email list of people who knew who he was and would probably buy what he was selling.
Even by looking at the response from 1 million emails from a conservative point of view, we're talking about:
- 1 million sends
- Assuming a 30% open rate gives 300k opens
- Assuming a 5% click through rate gives 50,000 clicks
- Assuming a 0.05% buy rate gives 5,000 customers
That's where Russell's first customers came from.
Soon after Russell was invited to speak in front of 1000 people by the Michael Jordan of marketing, Mark Filsaime.
The result?
38% of people stood up to buy the ClickFunnels package Russell was pitching at $1k, making him $380k overnight.
He decided to run with this presentation for quite a few times after that, and the results were pretty much the same:
A generation of Funnel Hackers was born.
How Eileen Wilder Made $1 Million In One Day (Twice) with ClickFunnels
Eileen's Background and Story
Eileen Wilder was a pastor for 18 years before she started her speaking business 4 years ago. She attended a Funnel Hacking Live event, and got inspired to start a sales and marketing biz. She started making basic videos from home, sharing her knowledge online. Surprisingly, she made $297 from this "trial run" which pushed her to promote high-ticket items. Soon she was selling the same videos for $6,000.
Eileen's Business Scaling Approach
Eileen then shifted from selling to individuals (one-to-one) to selling to groups (one-to-many), which significantly increased her income. Her first big sale was when she sold a $30,000 package to 34 people in a single day. This one-day deal made her a million dollars.
The Biggest Challenges Eileen Faced
The biggest business challenge for Eileen was transitioning from selling low-ticket to high-ticket items. The challenge was not just in raising her prices but also in building the conviction to do so and convincing clients of the value she provided. This shift needed a change in mindset: she's now charging people for her value and the result she makes vs charging them for her time in teaching.
Top 3 Lessons She Learned From the Experience
What's not mentioned in the interview: Eileen claims to have made a million dollar sale in just one day. However, she did not mention how much she spent on paid ads and marketing to reach that level of gross revenue. Typically, marketers pay $9,000 to $10,000 monthly on advertising campaigns. This cost goes up if you're targeting a larger audience base (which was the case for Eileen).
On top of that, she pays Clickfunnels $297 monthly for the Funnel Hacker Plan, whether or not she makes a sale over that period. She could have spent thousands of dollars in paid ads, tools, funnels, and marketing to achieve her "breakthrough moment" of making $1 million sales.
Brunson and the Secrets Trilogy
Throughout the years, Russell has also been very active on the publishing front, with most of his books teaching how to better incorporate ClickFunnels into one's business.
The books have themselves become bestsellers, and most of them have been sold through a funnel themselves, with the buyer only paying for the shipping costs (and the load of upsells attached to the offer!).
The first book, published for the first time back in 2011, but revamped for the release of ClickFunnels in 2014 and republished in 2020, is Dotcom Secrets:
In it, Russell reveals his secrets to generating leads and selling products and services after running tens of thousands of his own split tests.
It really is the ultimate guide for the beginning internet entrepreneur, who is willing to market his product via funnels.
The second classic in his Trilogy of books is Expert Secrets, which is all on how to turn your expertise into a carefully crafted sales message that will attract your dream customers.
Or as Russell himself says:
'Implement these story selling techniques now so you can find your voice and gain the confidence to become a leader, build a movement of people whose lives you can change, and make this calling a career'.
The third and most recent book is Traffic Secrets, of 2020, and this one focuses more on 'the classic and foundational direct marketing techniques that will allow you to be at the front of the new trends, see opportunities that are invisible to most everyone else, and master the emerging tactics before most people even know they exist'.
In short, it is a guide to finding your clients and focusing on changing their world with the products and services that you sell.
A fourth book, published in 2018, is Network Marketing Secrets and is aimed at incorporating your sales funnels into multilevel marketing.
Network marketing, which is also called multilevel marketing, involves aggressive procedures to get people to join your network or company.
Through the Network Marketing Secrets book, Russell provides a solution for network marketers. He combines his experience in successful MLM and his expertise in sales funnels to offer the ultimate solution.
It really shows Russell's 20 years of experience in the field and is as good as the books in the trilogies, in my humble opinion.
Family Life and Philanthropy
Russell is happily married to his high school sweetheart Collette, and they live in Boise, Idaho, with their five children.
On more than one occasion Russell has spoken about him being very family oriented and his wife and kids being the inspiration for his success in the business field.
He's also trying to get his older kids interested in entrepreneurship:
Who knows what the second generation of Brunsons' might be able to unleash on the marketing world in the future?
But Russell doesn't only care for his children.
He has always been interested in helping charities that helped children in need.
That's why Russell has reached out to the non-profit organization Village Impact, donating $1 for every funnel launched on ClickFunnels for the construction of schools in Africa.
And that's not all.
ClickFunnels has recently started collaborating with Operation Underground Railroad, another no-profit org that exists to rescue children from sex trafficking.
Every couple of years the Brunsons and other Funnel Hackers actually go to Kenya and physically help the building of roads, classes, and other structures that can benefit the children there.
So far, these have been the results:
Schools Built: 12
Classrooms: 100
Students: 3000+
Speaking and Hosting
Since launching ClickFunnels, Russell has been very active as a speaker, and has participated to various large speaking events organized by other entrepreneurs.
He also runs his own events, such as the annual Funnel Hacking Live event, where Funnel Hackers from all over the world come to see guests such as Prince EA, Garrett J. White, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi and many more..
His other important event, created in 2017 for the first time, was his 2 Comma Club Live, which was put together to celebrate all those who had earned $1 million through ClickFunnels.
The roll call of those who have won this award really include the who's who of entrepreneurship today, and it's a blast to hear the stories of how the winners started off and blew things up through funnels!
The latest edition of the 2 Comma Club Live was not in a packed arena, due to the pandemic, and Russell decided to run it online, introducing the best talks of the previous three years.
Mini Review of 2 Comma Club Live 2024
The three day event saw Russell as the online host, who introduced and commented the best talks that have been given in the previous years by some of the best speakers in the scene.
The three day event was divided into three distinct phases of the career of an entrepreneur, so believe me when I say there was something for everyone:
- Day 1 'IGNITE – How to Turn your Spark, into a Fire'
- Day 2 'NAIL IT – How to Master the Four Funnels that Drive 98% of your Sales'
- Day 3 'SCALE IT – After you’ve Nailed it'.
Even though the presentations are not new material, there is so much to unpack in each one that it really does not matter if you've seen some of them before.
Highlight of the event has to include Myron Golden's talk on 4 Levels of Value, where this legendary entrepreneur goes through the various scaling processes in your career.
Another great presentation is given by one of my favorites, Caleb Maddix: seeing someone so young crush it on stage was really inspirational, and his talk on Passive Impact was amazing to rewatch.
The best thing of the whole online event, though, is Russell himself, who introduces every speaker with lengthy intros and concepts taken from his books.
Russell really makes a good job of weaving his story, the story of ClickFunnels and the core concepts between the talks of the other speakers, but ultimately, the Live experience ported to the online format loses a lot of its effect.
All that being said, it is always awesome to see what Russell can come up with, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming Funnel Hacking Live 2020!
When all is said and done, Russell Brunson is definitely one of the few people who has really changed the world of online entrepreneurship.
Nevertheless, I am not sure that going the ClickFunnels way is necessary if you want to make a solid income online.
Carry on reading!
Why I Chose not to use ClickFunnels... Local Lead Generation Proved to be a Much Better Biz Model, Here's Why...
I run a $50K per month lead generation business but all of my leads are generating through free traffic or SEO, not through funnels and expensive courses.
So it's pretty much passive income, I don’t have to worry about the performance of any funnels or anything.
The website I create ranks on the first page of Google, in the so-called map pack, and the leads just start pouring in.
Once my site ranks it generally keeps its rank with very little to no maintenance.
Don’t get me wrong you can still make a living creating a course and selling it via funnels, but it's a hard route very challenging to do so.
The problem with selling through funnels is that you are constantly looking at your CTR and conversion rate of your funnels.
How many people are clicking on your funnel, and out of those people, how many actually end up watching the webinar and buying the product?
If things go wrong, it's back to tweaking, spending more money, trying a different approach.
This is why I still recommend people look into doing lead generation with free traffic
Conclusion
Brian Love's Business Accelerator course is well executed, everything is there to learn how to create your product and market it via webinar.
Let me tell you, there are niches that work with this kind of method, but the problem is there are many niches that really struggle too.
Unlike selling through webinars, if you know how to generate leads with free traffic, you can go into any niche and create an incredible level of results for clients.
That’s how 90% of my multiple 6 figure income is generated. And I should add that it's passive income: see free traffic never stops.
In 2020, even during Covid-19, I continue to build more lead gen sites and I write at least 1 blog post a day for this site, because I’ve come to realize that these are the high-income producing activities because it directly increases my free traffic every month.
Click here if you want to know more about my Lead Gen method.
