Expert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Creating a Mass Movement of People Who Will Pay for Your Advice

by Russell Brunson

We coach others, we create information products, and we start contributing to other people’s growth. When you do that, you learn more about yourself and the process as you do it.

The process with most expert businesses is the same. First, we become passionate about a particular topic. We study, we learn, we implement, but eventually we can’t grow anymore from study alone. We then shift our focus to helping others with what we have learned, and that contribution helps them, which in turn also helps us continue to grow.

The key is to understand that the people will follow you because you have completed the journey they are on right now, and they want the result you have already achieved.

like you.

Rule #2: Maintain absolute certainty. It is said that in any situation, the person with the most certainty wins. I’m not talking about self-confidence. As my buddy Setema Gali says: “Self-confidence is for kids.” If you want to make an impact, you have to be certain. Certainty is what draws people to leaders, to experts.

It has been said that everyone you meet is engaged in a great struggle. The thing they are struggling with is their enemy.

Start sharing your message and become consistent with it so you can find your voice. Figure out where your message can polarize people into true fans. Share your backstory and flaws. Be transparent. And over time, you will naturally become the leader your tribe needs.

I realized that not only rebellions but all mass movements are built on hope, and it’s essential that we create that hope in the future, because without hope, they can’t have the faith necessary to move forward and change. As they say in Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

“You are only one sales letter away from striking it rich.” I know that for me, that statement created a vision that got me excited. I didn’t know which sales letter or product it would be for me, but I had a perfect hope that if I would just keep trying, something would work. It created faith in my mind that what I was working toward was real, and even though I failed over and over and over again, that thought kept me moving forward through the ups and downs I experienced early in my career.

I’m part of a group of underground entrepreneurs you’ve probably never heard of. US vs. THEM • Take a stand. We don’t rely on cash from venture capitalists to get started, and we don’t even have goals to go public either. In fact, our motivation is the exact opposite. We have products and services and things that we KNOW can change people’s lives. • Why are you different? Because we’re fighting against the big brands, people with literally unlimited budgets, we have to do things differently. We have to do things smarter. We don’t have financial safety nets. Every test we take is with our own money. We have to be profitable from day number one. So how do we do that? How is that even possible? • Who or what are you collectively fighting against? If you asked the MBAs or look in the college textbooks, they’d tell you that what we’re doing is impossible. Yet it’s happening. Every single day. It’s happening through the art and science that we call Funnel Hacking. • Who you ARE! We are Funnel Hackers, and these are our stories! Do you see how powerful that is? The video isn’t long—only a minute and 10 seconds. But it clearly defines who we are and what our cause is all about. People who resonate with that message are going to say, “HECK, yeah!” and then join us. Those who don’t get it will just move on. It’s natural selection for the true believers. Those are the four core things we use to create our future-based cause. Where can they place their hope and faith? Help them break ...

Our goal is not to fix what’s not working. Our goal is to REPLACE what’s not working with something better.

WHY PEOPLE DON’T WANT IMPROVEMENT OFFERS Improvement offers are much harder to sell for a lot of reasons. Here are a few of the main reasons people tend to avoid improvement offers at all costs. 1. Improvement is Hard Most people have tried to improve in the past, and for some reason it didn’t work. They’ve tried to lose weight. They’ve tried to make money. They’ve tried to make their relationships better. But if they’re coming to you, then whatever they tried in the past didn’t work for some reason. They know the difficulties they’ve had to go through in the past, and there is pain associated with that. With a new opportunity, they don’t know what the process will be, so they don’t have to go through the known pain to get the result. Another amazing quote from The True Believer: “They must be wholly ignorant of the difficulties involved in their vast undertaking. Experience is a handicap.” 2. Desire vs. Ambition All people have desire, but very few have ambition. My guess is that less than 2% of the population is actually ambitious. Improvement offers are selling to over-achieving ambitious people. If you do sell an improvement offer, you are automatically excluding 98% of the world. You will be fighting an uphill battle. A new opportunity, on the other hand, plays on people’s desires for the change they want in their lives. 3. Memories of Poor Past Decisions If your followers are in need of improvement, they must first admit failure. In order for them to say yes to your ...

Your job as the expert is to load up the elevated status side of the scale and decrease the risk of failure. You can do that by creating an amazing product and minimizing risk with things like money-back guarantees, risk reversals, and done-for-you options. The key to making a sale is 100% tied to this concept of status.

So which factors elevate status? Well, it’s different for everyone, but here are a few that are pretty universal. • Appearance of intelligence (anything that makes them look smarter) • Appearance of wealth, power, or happiness • Physical appearance (weight loss, makeup, supplements, etc.) • Style (think Mac vs. PC)

WHY PEOPLE CRAVE NEW OPPORTUNITIES So now you know why improvement offers don’t work. Here are a few reasons why new opportunities DO work. 1. New discovery When people discover your new opportunity for the first time, they’re going to want to share it because sharing something new gives them an immediate increase in status. Just think about when videos on YouTube or Facebook go viral. What’s happening behind the scenes? I’ve worked with teams who create viral videos for a living, and they’ve found that videos go viral when they are cool and new because others want to be the first to show them to their friends. Discovery immediately increases perceived status. 2. No pain of disconnect Because they don’t have to admit they made bad decisions in the past, there is no longer a huge pain of disconnect from what they are currently doing. They can just move on to something brand new. No pain of disconnect = no decrease in status. Improvement offers sell THROUGH the pain, where new opportunities sell AWAY from the pain. 3. Dream replacement One reason many people struggle to make the changes they want and need in their lives is the fear of failure. If they try to change and it doesn’t work for them, then their dreams are dead. So they will give up potential success for fear of losing their dreams. We know that “without a vision, the people perish”. When you make a new opportunity, you’re giving them a new dream to move toward. 4. Greener pastures We’ve all heard a million times t...

“If you’ve been struggling to sell your products online, you need to switch from your traditional website to a funnel”

“You need to start using funnels so you can make money from paid advertising as well.”

1. What is the RESULT you want for your people? 2. What is the VEHICLE or process you are going to take them through to get that result? Once you know those two things on a basic level, you can move forward and design the perfect vehicle that your audience will love. STEP #1: GET EARLY RESULTS BY WORKING FOR FREE