56: Steve, What Gives...

Secret MLM Hacks Radio

Hey, what's up guys? Hey, I am having a great day. You know what's funny? I love Mondays. I love them so much. Monday is my favorite day of the week, and Monday morning specifically. I go popping out of bed and I'm like "Yeah, we get to do this again! What?" I get pumped about it. I'm excited about it. Well, hey, I kind of have to hurry here a little bit. We, in about an hour here, we're actually going to find out the gender of our new little kid and I'm excited. It's going to be a lot of fun. Few things have taught me as much as being a father, so this'll be a good experience. Hey, I wanted to drop in a question here. I love hearing you guys' questions. I do get them and I kind of vet through them to see which ones are most applicable for everybody. I got a question here from John Bender and great question. If you guys don't know what I'm talking about it you go to secretmlmhacksradio.com and you have to opt in, but on the next page what it does is it, there's a green button down on the bottom right and if you click that button what it'll do is you actually can record a question to me. Typically, they're about 30 second questions, and just start with "Hey, Steve" and if it's a question that's applicable for everybody, you can go ahead and drop it in there. I put them inside the actual episodes themselves and I think you guys have heard me do that before. I have another one here and I thought I'd play it right now.

Speaker 2: Hey, Steve, this is John Bender checking in here, getting ready to head into the gym, but had a question for you. You know I've been doing networking for 23 years and been pretty successful. We've done about $350 million in sales with our different systems. I've studied all these gurus for years, focusing in the digital space. Why is it that you seem to be like one of the few good guys on there? You don't curse, you're not off color. You don't do sexist jokes. You're just a good guy. You're funny, you're bright, you're intelligent. You're extremely informative. I know you're incredibly giving. What gives, man? I don't get it. Why do all these other people, from some of my greatest icons out there to the modern marketers of the day, they're so crude and rude and yet you're such an incredibly great mentor, not just for what you know but who you are and apparently whose you are. So, I want to thank you for that and doing this for so many years it's great to see the great work you're doing. Keep it up. Hope to be a part of your team.

Steve Larson: Hey, how's it going, John? Hey, first off, thank you so much for that question and extremely nice complements. I was not expecting that. Hey, I actually, the reason why I actually wanted to put this in the episode for everybody though, is there's a specific reason why I do what I do and how I do it. I've had the opportunity, the chance, in my career to work with some very big names. Okay. John Bender, yourself, you're the man. Obviously, for everyone else who's listening, I do know who John is. I actually was shocked and surprised when I saw him drop this question in. Just very, very nice of you, but certainly consider him to be one of my mentors as well. We have, I've had the chance of working with some very big names, very big people. When I was working at ClickFunnels, I'm saying. I'm solo now, as you guys all know, I've been solo for, I'm staring my fourth week solo and it's been awesome, and it's because of MLM that I'm able to do that, which is a lot of fun and great. But we did a ton of projects with some huge names, guys. I mean I built for Marcus Lemonis on the TV show The Prophet, on CNBC, did five funnels for him. We did some awesome projects with Tony Robbins for his book funnel, Money Mass Of The Game. We did some projects for Robert Kiyosaki. The Tony Robbins one that was right before I got there, but that was the kind of stuff that we would do all the time. It was fun, guys. I mean it was super fun. What was interesting was to watch the mentality of these massive giants. What was interesting is, there seems to be this disconnect. You're thinking, "Steve, what does that have to do with MLM?" It has everything to do with MLM. Okay. Just follow me on this a little bit. What I noticed is rubbing shoulders with some of these massive guys. I'm talking A, tier one people. Everyone knows them. Everyone knows who they are. They're sought after. They have massive distribution. You know what I mean? The power of what they say sways markets and people's opinions like crazy. They're huge people. And they know that. I learned that like 90% of the time these guys are like some of the most amazing authentic caring loving people. They're genuinely good people, just good people. Okay. What was fascinating though, and I'm going to be very careful as I say this, and this is for the lesson and it might not be nice to some people when they hear it, but there are some people that, they're not on that tier one level, and they know it. But they think that to be a professional they must go around toting around their successes in front of the faces of all these other people, and kind of be mean about it. As soon as they, there's a ... Guys there's a ... I'm very religious, okay so I'm just going to say that. There's a verse that says that the moment someone gets any amount of power or authority, they tend to abuse it. That's basically what the lesson is. Any amount of power, or any amount of authority, then tend to abuse it and basically drink their own Kool-Aid, okay. That's not what that says, but that's basically it. It was a huge topic that I had with Russell many times. Many times one-on-one with him, and he would say "Steven, if you want recognition don't seek it." Then he would also say things like "Don't drink your own Kool-Aid." It's not that I was, okay, it's just that we would watch these other people, and we would have conversations and stuff like that about, and we're like man ... and it's not to say like "ah I'm better than you, 'cause I'm not drinking my Kool-Aid." You know it's not a status thing, it's nothing like that, but I truly believe that, guys, everyone of us whose listening to this podcast right now we all have the ... It is innate and it is inside of us to be great. To be great. It's inside of every individual. It's not reserved for just a few people. Every person can be great. What does great mean? First of all, you compare yourself to you, no one else. Okay. One of the easiest ways to get down in your life is to start comparing yourself to other people or to an ideal. If you look around and you start saying to yourself, like "oh man, like for me," ... You guys know a lot of my story. When we had literally no money, like literally no money, and it was extremely stressful. It was terrible. It was an awful experience to go through that whole thing. But, when we had no money, if I compare myself to where I am, compared to where we were. Oh man! That's awesome. Like that's so cool. I have nothing to be ashamed about. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Like look what I was able to get done. I'm comparing me to me. That is the easiest place for you to have success and fulfillment emotionally in this game of MLM. The easiest way for you to get down and have destructive energy all over you, is to compare yourself number one to a person or number two to an ideal. The problem with comparing yourself to an ideal, like pop culture. The problem is they change all the time. It's an ideal. It's undefinable. You don't know when you reached it. There's no actual, you don't know when you hit the spot, because it moved the moment you started going towards it. That's the problem with ideals, so don't compare yourself or put your self-worth or value by comparing yourself to ideals. Again, pop culture does that all the time. I'm not throwing mud, I'm not throwing rocks, I'm not saying like ... I'm not downplaying Hollywood. I'm not downplaying movies. Nothing like that. I'm saying when you pit your self-worth against things that are ideals or another person, you will never really feel successful or happy or satisfied with what you're doing. Ever. You can't. But when you compare yourself to something that's solid, something that there's concrete evidence of, something that, and you compare yourself to where you've gone. You measure that progress, that my friend is how you actually get the feeling and emotion of "Oh man, I actually, I can do this" or "Look what I've done, like this is so cool." Not in a boasting way, you're not being proud, but it's okay and it's important to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment over what you've been getting done. So, John, you said what gives? I compare myself to me. I looked at myself in the mirror about three years ago, and I remember this, and I looked myself in the mirror and I said "I am Steve freakin' Larson, and I'm going to be the best funnel builder in the world." That's what I did. I looked myself in the mirror and I got serious about it. I started making sacrifices in order to get there. I did not go hang out with friends. I did not go, and I studied my face off. Literally, just one right after the other, every single day. For years. Only slept anywhere from three to five hours a night, typically. Sometimes I'd indulge and go to six. I did that for years. To study and to learn and to practice and to build side businesses and side agencies and build sales funnels for other people and other companies and for myself. Finally got good enough that people started knowing who I was. Then finally got good enough that Russell Brunson found out who I was and got hired to ClickFunnels as the lead funnel builder. Then I really started accelerating. I don't remember who said it but it's the quote that basically says like hey when you're standing up in the clouds realize you're standing on the shoulders of giants. You know what I mean? I totally botched that quote, but basically I don't get anywhere on my own. I'm very cognizant of that. I do believe that God has been very much involved with it and will continue to be and I've very thankful for that. There's nothing that I can do or say, really, that is of my own. You know what I mean? It's the nature of ideas that ... Guys, in a business you're starting to have ideas. Especially in this podcast, I'm sure I've given you ideas. Guess what? I got the ideas, though, from other people and other things and they got taken. This piece got taken from that base. This piece got taken from this origin. This piece, and then when I combined them here, look how cool they got?! Then I'm sharing them and you're taking them and you're saying "Here's where I am Steve" and "I'm tossing my things on them." So there's nothing in my mind that is really of our own, both physically or idea based. Everything has come from something else and in my mind I do believe that's God. It's ludicrous for me to think that it came from my own hand. Look what I crafted 100%. Now, I have agency. I can move forward. I can take action. I can do everything I can to work super hard and get things done and nothing's going to get done, nothing's going to work unless I do, but it's still ultimately at the end it's not really my own thing. That's my belief. I don't really talk ... I'm learning I'm talking about God publicly on my podcast more. It's something I'm getting more comfortable with. I've never really done that on this episode I don't think, or on this show, but anyway. That's why. That's why. I was speaking at two different events this past week. I think I told you guys about that, but it's two different events back to back. I started getting a lot of praise, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with understanding that you're good, and I know I'm good. I'm unapologetic about the fact that I know I'm good. But I also know where that all came from. Okay? I'm pointing up like you can see me. That's part of it. Part of my background with this, guys, is that, a lot of you know, it's two things. I just wanted to drop two stories on you here real quick. There's two things here that are really, really important for me to always remember in my background. Number one, I was probably the most shy kid that you could ever find. When I was in high school, I got voted the nicest kid in high school. There were 600 people in my graduating class. 600. I got voted the nicest kid. I literally got the nicest kid award. It shocked me. I was a little rage machine on the inside. I was like "nicest kid award?" It was like pent up internal energy. I was like, it surprised me like crazy. Nicest kid award. What on earth? It wasn't, internally it was not because I was nicest. It was because I was shy. But I was full of rage and I was like this little tiny terror, which is so true. I had to overcome a lot of stuff and it wasn't, you know, I was the one that created activation energy to show God that I was actually able to go do these things. But, ultimately the change did not come because of me. That's where my mentality is with that. The second thing is that when I look back and I start thinking about ... Guys I was an idiot in school. I just was. I was not good at school stuff. I was not book smart. I was what you would call street smart. I barely graduated high school. I actually did so bad my first semester of college, that I got kicked out. Which is true. I had to reapply after learning how to learn. Then I went back and that's when I started getting straight A's. Almost complete straight A's. I ended school with a 3.85 GPA, which was awesome. I mean it was awesome. Really, really cool. But I think I got a .17 GPA in my first semester. No joke. Which is awful, super bad. So for me there's just been such a stark contrast in life from where I was as a kid and as a teenager and even into my early 20's, compared to where I am now. The internal transformation has gone through the roof. It's frankly one of the reasons I'm so passionate about business. I have had more personal development through the pursuit of entrepreneurship, than any personal development course could every give me. Just like Robert Kiyosaki says, and I know I've brought that up before on this podcast before too, is like look the moment you start an entrepreneurial journey, you'll move forward. You'll get excited. But character flaws are going to explode in your face. They're going to make you ... There's going to be egg on your face all the time. The character flaws are going to explode, and you're going to go "Aw man! I wish I could have done that or this or I should have talked to that client" but man, I had personal habits and addictions that made me stay up late. You know what I mean? Whatever it is. I couldn't get up on time. I'm not eating right. Whatever those things are for you, they're personal character flaws that we all know about ourselves that are actually the thing that are holding us back a lot of times in business. It's not so much always that "Hey, I don't know what to do next." I don't know what to do in my business next. You know what? 90% of the time I've found out that people know exactly what they should be doing next in their business, but what holds them back is a character flaw. A fear. They're scared of speaking. They're scared of ... whatever it is. It has more to do with that. It's been my opinion, and it's been my very amazing transformational experience, to know and notice that if I take those things and I say this is what I want to work on. You actually can overcome those things and you can move forward in a very powerful way. That is what, in my mind, makes you successful. I don't publish stuff to look perfect. A lot of people do that. I don't wear a certain tie on my podcast cover for a reason. I take the starch out of my shirts. I'm trying to be just a real dude and show you, hey look I have fears. I have passions, desires. I have hobbies. You know what I mean? I'm just trying to be a real guy. I'm not trying to go around ... And what's funny is I've noticed that when I publish and I speak and I go out and I'm more that, I get more followers than if I try to put a suit and tie on and posture myself. If you're going through for somebody who wants to see the shirt and tie, great. That's fine. I'm not saying I'm against that at all. What I am saying though is there's this thing to being authentic and real that a ton of people that I think are afraid to show. I think that they look around and they think oh my gosh to be professional means I must look ... I hate the phrase dress for success, or wear ... you can see it's a lot about clothes, stuff like that. I don't know if that's a ... Maybe that's a complex I have. I don't know. It's just I've been around so many massively wildly successful people, especially in the last little bit in my career, to notice and see that the ones that are really satisfied where they are. The ones that are not drinking their own Kool-Aid. They're not afraid of being real. They're not afraid of ... if there's somebody's whose clearly not on the level they are, the ones that are really awesome are the ones that won't care about that and they'll just still tell them the same answer. They'll tell the same answer to somebody who paid $100,000 for the answer as somebody who they can tell is just starting out and just needs to know what the answer is. You know what I mean? They're able to, everything isn't black and white to them. They're real authentic individuals. They have no problem being open and honest. Anyway. So I saw that and I've been really trying to just be ... I mean it's the reason guys, I'll tell you, I was running up the stairs chasing my little girls. We were running around, playing hide and seek. I tripped up the stairs. I freaking broke my toe. Like come on. Most people, anyway, like ... Just whatever's going on in your life, and a lot of you guys know, especially those of you guys who actually came and saw Secret MLM Hacks, which I hope that you guys all do. The actual program itself. I hope you join the program, 'cause what I do, module number one actually talks about how to become an individual that others want to follow in the first place, since in MLM they join you not the MLM. How do you actually do that? That's literally what module one is about. It goes through and it talks, it shows like this is how you be someone that other people want to follow. This is how you ... and you will speak to certain people and they will not like you. That's fine. You will speak to other people and this other following over here, they'll like you. But if you're speaking so generically that you have this group over here that love you and that no one has any opinion about you. No one's going to follow you. They need to have an opinion about you. Which means you need to get opinionated. I have no problem sharing my opinions. But also understanding that I shouldn't be full of myself either. Anyway I feel like I've said the same things a billion times over and over and over again, but there's something to trying to be ... I don't know, just authentic about where you are that people can sense it. It's a big enough deal. I feel like its something that people should all practice and try. Anyway, this was a 20 minute episode. I was not planning on doing that. As far as what gives, it's that I'm just trying to be just a real guy and be a loud version of myself. There's always someone who's going to be better, faster, stronger, better looking, there's always the er, right, than me. Er, er, er, er. Whatever it is, better, faster, stronger, you know what I mean? There's always someone who's going to be, so that's not what I compete on. What I compete on are my differences not my strengths. Okay. In business, like the actual product, I compete on my strengths, but for my personal character, as far as my attractive character, the way I publish, I compete on differences. I don't compete on strengths. That's one of the major reasons why I stand out. You think through that with your MLM. Think through where you are. What are your differences and how can you compete on differences rather than strengths, for your own character. But then for your product, compete on strengths. Rather than focusing on weaknesses, it's kind of two different ... Anyway, I realized that a while ago and it's been cool to be able to do that. I really feel like that's where I started turning up more frequently in places, 'cause people wanting to follow me. We just screamed past 12,000 downloads, and I got a cool surprise for you guys coming up here in the future. But anyway, you guys are all awesome. Appreciate it. Thanks so much for the question, John. Have mad respect for you. I will talk to you guys all later. Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback for me. Do you have a question you want answered live on the show? Go to secretMLMhacksradio.com to submit your question and download your free MLM Masters pack.